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COLONIAL 
VIRGINIA 




J. A. C. Chandler 
and T. B. Thames 



Times-Dispatch Company, Richmond, Va., U. S. A. 

MCMVII. 







LIBRARY of C0NSSE9S 

Two Copies Rtceivsiu 

DEC 23 i 907 

Copynjnt tntry 

CUSS XXc. No. 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1907, 
Times - Dispatch Company, 



Received from 

Copyright Offica. 

!2F f 08 



Manufactured by 
Jenkins, Richmond, Va 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEB PAGE 

I. The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island 3 

II. A Great Tbtjst — The London Company 16 

III. Reasons fob Colonization 80 

IV. John Smith, the Hebo of Jamestown 42 

V. The Land of Powhatan and His People 56 

VI. Pocahontas, the Heboine of Jamestown 70 

VII. The Tbavail of the Nation 87 

VIII. The Beginnings of Education in Vibginia 103 

IX. The Labob System of Colonial Vibginia 114 

X. The Fibst Amebican Legislative Assembly and Its 

Significance 131 

XL Tobacco 146 

XII. Home Building in the Seventeenth Centuby 163 

XIII. Massacbe and Revenge 176 

XIV. Planting the Chubch in the Wildebness 190 

XV. Vibginia Undeb Chables I. and Cbomwells 207 

XVI. Bacon's Rebellion 223 

XVII. The Passing of Jamestown and the Rise of Williams- 
burg 239 

XVIII. An Infant Nation's Industries 253 

XIX. Politics in Colonial Vibginia 270 

XX. The Colonial Gentleman 285 

XXI. The Westward Movement— 1716-1774 299 

XXII. The Settlebs of the Feontieb 313 

XXIII. Patbick Henby, Vibginia's Gbeat Commoneb 332 

XXIV. Thomas Jeffebson 356 

XXV. Geobge Washington, the Swobd of the Revolution 372 



... The... 

Princess Pocahontas 




Maioaks akRebecka daughter to the miphty Yrmce 
lonjhatan J 4 mperpurof l /hianouah\iorroiick dt&hrqma. 

"Wife to t/ie ~WotI M r Thcr. Koiff 



After the copy made by U^illiam L. Sheppard, 
from the original at Booton Rectory, Nor- 
folk, England, for the State of Virginia. 



COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

CHAPTER I. 
THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE ISLAND. 

It is a far cry from San Salvador to Jamestown. More 
than a century elapsed after the discovery pf the Western 
Continent by Columbus before a permanent settlement by 
the English was effected. As late as the beginning of the 
seventeenth century it looked as though Spanish preoccu- 
pancy was to remain unchallenged. Aside from a few hun- 
dred Spaniards at St. Augustine and Santa Fe, there were no 
white men to be found within the present limits of the United 
States. There had, however, been brave and frequent efforts 
to plant an English colony on the American shores. In spite 
of repeated disasters and bitter disappointments, it was never 
difficult to find Englishmen who were willing to make the bold 
venture. The spirit of the Crusaders lingered long after the 
Crusades were done with. The call of the South Sea, the 
golden dream of the Eldorado, the incessant dread of Catholic 
aggression and of Spanish encroachment, made it always pos- 
sible to secure both men and means for every serious effort 
at colonization. 

Five years after Columbus pointed the way to the new 
lands, John and Sebastian Cabot, sailing under the English 
flag, touched upon the shores of North America and claimed 
the new continent for England. Henry VII., to show his 
gratitude, presented to the Cabots the munificent gift of £10. 



4 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Frobisher and Gilbert bravely ventured into the cold 
and desolate regions of the extreme northern coast, each seek- 
ing a passage to the Orient. Later, Gilbert sought to secure 
the English in their claim to North America. 

Drake, with dauntless and infinite piracy, "plowed a fur- 
row around the world," compassing the western coast as far 
north as Oregon, naming it New Albion, and claiming it for 
England. 

Raleigh, in superb faith and sacrifice, himself sent out two 
colonies. The first of these quailed before the dangers and 
desolations of the wilderness, and went back home. Of the 
second there remained only the undeciphered word "Crotoan," 
blazed upon a tree, to tell of the fatal tragedy that came upon 
the settlers in their lonely island home. 

Gbsnold, eschewing the older and more genial route by 
the Canaries, espoused the open sea, and blazed a new path 
across the ocean, saving a week's sailing time and shortening 
the route by a thousand miles. 

Of these expeditions and attempts at settlement, those of 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Raleigh were the most 
serious and elaborate. These were half-brothers. Millais has 
a great picture called "The Boyhood of Sir Walter Raleigh." 
A veteran sailor is relating stories of strange seas and shores 
to two lads. In their eyes is a far-away look that compasses 
distance and undiscovered shores, and in their ears is the in- 
cessant call of the sea. One of these lads is Sir Walter Raleigh 
and the other is Sir Humphrey Gilbert, his half-brother. 

Gilbert was a patriot, soldier and seaman, esteemed wor- 
thy of a place by the great Admiral Drake. There can be 
re doubt but that Millais's picture was suggested by the con- 
ferences that these two brothers must often have had to- 
gether touching the finding awd settlement of the American 
shores 



THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE ISLAND. 5 

In June, 1578, Gilbert got from Queen Elizabeth letters 
patent, authorizing him to make discoveries and to plant colo- 
nies in that part of the New World not occupied by any Chris- 
tian prince. Several unsuccessful expeditions were made. 
However, in 1583, Gilbert sailed from Plymouth, England, 
with a fleet of five small ships, the largest of which, in honor 
of his half-brother, was named Raleigh. He was not long in 
reaching St. John's harbor, Newfoundland. Here he found 
thirty-six fishing vessels, the owners of which at first refused 
him permission to land, but on his showing the commission 
of his Queen they reluctantly yielded. Going immediately 
ashore he took possession of the land in the name of the 
crown of England. 

The land was bleak, the climate was inhospitable, and 
for one reason and another the men soon fell sick, and anally 
they gave up the enterprise and returned to England. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert embarked in a "mere trivial yacht," 
called The Squirrel, of only ten tons burden. In it he ex- 
plored the dangerous coasts of Cape Breton, and refused to 
leave the little vessel and the little company with whom he 
had passed so many perils. After having gone about three 
leagues from Newfoundland, the little vessel sprang a leak 
and made slow headway in the face of a furious storm. He 
insisted, however, that he must remain with his comrades, 
and when last seen he was sitting in the stern of the boat with 
a book in his hand, and cried repeatedly to the sailors in the 
Golden Hind, "We are as near heaven by sea as by land." 
The captain of the Golden Hind reported that "about twelve 
of the clock suddenly the light of The Squirrel disappeared, 
and withal our watch cried out, 'Our general is cast away,' 
which was too true, for in that moment the frigate was de- 
voured and swallowed up in the sea." Thus perished one of 
the bravest forerunners of American colonization, and thus 



6 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

failed one of the most daring ventures in the settlement of the 
new continent. 

Raleigh was not discouraged by the failure and death of 
his brother.; In 1584 he secured from the Queen a charter 
with the right to establish colonies in any part of the New 
World. It seemed to him wise that exploring parties should 
be sent out to designate the places where it would be best to 
plant new colonies. He therefore sent out two ships to ex- 
plore the coasts of North America, one commanded by Cap- 
tain Arthur Barlow, and the other by Captain Philip Amadas. 
These two explorers crossed the ocean and landed on the 
shores of North Carolina, somewhere in the region of Cape 
Hatteras. They were greatly charmed with the country into 
which they had come. The Hatteras Indians proved most 
friendly and hospitable, and their King, Wingina, gave them a 
most cordial invitation to visit his land and people. On the 
acceptance of this invitation they were treated with marked 
hospitality, especially by the wife of the great chief. Of her 
it was said : "She was small, pretty and bashful, clothed in a 
leather mantle with the fur turned in. Her long, dark hair 
was restrained by a band of white coral ; strings of beads hung 
from her cars and reached her waist." 

These explorers were greatly impressed with the beauty 
and fertility of the land. The forests of pines, live-oak, tulip 
trees and tall cedars were filled with wild turkey and other 
game. The water seemed to be literally teeming with fish, 
crabs and oysters. On their return to England they reported 
that this new land far exceeded the land of old Canaan, and 
that it was more beautiful and fertile than the land which 
"flows with milk and honey." Their stay in the new coun- 
try had been long enough for them to make friends with many 
of the Indians, and they carried back to England two natives 
bv the names of Manteo and Wanchese. 



THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE ISLAND. 7 

Raleigh was 'delighted with the report that they brought 
back, and the Virgin Queen Elizabeth became enthusiastic, 
and in her own honor named the new country VIRGINIA. 

As designated by Queen Elizabeth, Virginia was a broad 
expanse of territory, the boundaries of which were not defin- 
itely known. An old chronicler said : "The bounds thereof on 
the east side are the ocean, on the south lieth Florida, on the 
north Nova Francea ; as for the west, the limits thereof are un- 
known." 

In the meanwhile Sir Walter Raleigh was continually 
growing in favor at the court. The Queen was exceedingly 
fascinated with his gallant and courtly manners. About this 
time he was made a knight and became a member of Parlia- 
ment. In order that he might have the means wherewith to 
realize his colonial schemes, the Queen granted him a monop- 
cly of the tax on wine. Having thus secured the means, he 
determined to follow up the explorations already made by 
an effort to plant a colony in the New World. He entrusted 
the general management of the enterprise to the great Eng- 
lish seaman, Sir Richard Grenville. Such was the interest in 
the effort to establish a colony that Grenville was accom- 
panied by Thomas Cavendish, the distinguished navigator; 
Thomas Harriot, the best known mathematician of England, 
and John White, the artist, who drew the illustrations of the 
country that were used in DeBry's edition of Harriot's de- 
scription of Virginia, known as "A Brief and True Report of 
the New Found Land in Virginia." This was the same John 
White who was afterwards made Governor of Raleigh's second 
colony. He made seventy-six pictures in water colors, of 
which twenty-three were engraved by DeBry. A visitor to 
the British Museum can see in the Grenville Library every 
one of these originals of priceless value. 

Late in June, 1585, Roanoke Island, at the mouth of Albe- 



8 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

marie Sound, was reached and selected as a place on which to 
plant the colony. There were one hundred and eight set- 
tlers. The Indian Mante -ned with them and at once 
announced to Wingina, the King of the Hatteras Indians, the 
arrival of his English friends. 

After exploring the coast within a range of eighty miles, 
Grenville left the colony in charge of John Lane. Lane con- 
tinued exploring even to Chesapeake Bay, and visited the 
present site of Norfolk. He was undoubtedly the first Eng- 
lishman to view Hampton Roads and the surrounding country. 

The colony of Roanoke Island never prospered. The 
colonists had come with the expectation that the fertility of 
the land would make work unnecessary. They had consider- 
able trouble with the Indians, mainly on account of their own 
harsh and unjust treatment of them. With the lack of in- 
dustry and of real purpose to remain in the new country, to- 
gether with their spirit of enmity toward the aborigines, the 
failure of the colony was inevitable. 

In the fall of the year they spied a fleet of twenty-three 
ships, which proved to be English sails under the charge of 
Sir Francis Drake, returning to England after a cruise in 
South American waters. Carrying out instructions that he 
had received from Queen Elizabeth, he was visiting the colo- 
nists to ascertain their condition and needs. So grave was 
the situation that he agreed with them that they should re- 
turn with him at once to England. The houses were aban- 
doned, but not destroyed. The colonists carried back with 
them tobacco, Indian corn and potatoes, three products of the 
American continent which were not known in England. 
Raleigh planted the potatoes on his estate in Ireland, and 
since that day they have become the chief food of the lush 
people, and on this account they are commonly called 'T.'ish 
potatoes." 




Queen Elizabeth. 



THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE ISLAND. 9 

The use of tobacco soon came to be a fad in England, both 
among the men and women. The story is told that Raleigh 
persuaded the Queen to try a pipe of tobacco. After two or 
three puffs she became greatly nauseated, at which a number 
of maids of honor laughed, while others declared that Raleigh 
had poisoned the Queen. She soon recovered, however, and, 
in disgust with her ladies of the court, forced them all to 
undergo her experience. Another story is told that Raleigh 
wagered with the Queen that he could weigh the smoke 
which. was expended from a pipeful of tobacco. The Queen 
accepted the wager, whereupon Raleigh weighed the tobacco, 
smoked it, weighed the ashes and declared that the smoke 
represented the difference. We are also told that one day 
while Raleigh was smoking in his room his servant came in 
bringing him a glass of ale. Seeing the smoke come from hia 
master's mouth, he threw the glass of ale on his master, 
lushed out and gave the fire alarm. By the time of King 
James the First the smoking of tobacco became prevalent 
throughout all England. The King could not indalge himself 
without being made sick, and consequently became a strenuous 
opponent of the use of the weed, and wrote a violent and not 
very dignified book, "The Counter Blast," in which His 
Majesty declared that smoking was a vile offense against 
humanity and a curse to Christianity. 

Raleigh refused to be discouraged even by the failure of 
his first colony beginning under such favorable auspices and 
having such fair promise of permanent success. In his far- 
seeing vision he took in always the possibility of an England 
in the New World, and he determined to make yet another at- 
tempt. So it fell out that in 1587 he sent out three other 
vessels, with John White as governor, with instructions to 
plant a colony on Chesapeake Bay or on the Elizabeth River. 
If these instructions had been carried out, Raleigh's second 



IO COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

colony would have been planted at Sewell's Point, near the 
spot where the Jamestown Exposition Company is to com- 
memorate the first permanent settlement of 1607. 

Unfortunately for the colonists, their pilot took them back 
to Albemarle Sound, and after some debate, it was reluctantly 
concluded to plant there the second time a colony on Roanoke 
Island. This expedition was composed of men, women and 
children. A short time after they landed, the governor's 
daughter, Eleanor, gave birth to the first English child born 
in America. She was christened "Virginia" in honor of the 
new country. Just a week before the christening of Virginia, 
Manteo had been baptized into the Christian faith, doubtless 
the first trophy of the Christian religion from among the 
aborigines of America. 

In a little while the colonists were at war with the Indians, 
and the large store of supplies that they had brought with 
them, under bad management, was dwindling perceptibly. 
It was thought best that Governor White should at once re- 
turn to England for additional supplies. He went away, 
leaving on the island eighty-nine men, seventeen women and 
eleven children. 

White was gone for three years. On his return to England 
he found Raleigh, Grenville and Lane gathered about the 
Queen in earnest and urgent preparation for Spanish invasion. 
In the midst of such engagements and excitements Raleigh, 
in his abundant enthusiasm, found time to form a company 
for prosecuting the purpose of maintaining an English colony 
in America. Among those interested in this company were 
Sir Thomas Smith, afterwards the treasurer of the London 
Company, and Richard Hakluyt, Dean of Westminster, and 
author of a celebrated b'ook of voyages. With two ships 
White was dispatched under the auspices of this new com- 
pany with supplies for Roanoke Island. Unfortunately his 



THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE ISLAND, n 

ships fell in with privateers and, after a bloody engagement, 
were disabled and compelled to return to England. 

The Spanish Armada was so imminent that no furcher 
thought could be given to the lonely colonists on the Island 
of Roanoke. Neither men nor ships could be spared for other 
enterprises ; all were needed, and at once, to meet the coming 
Armada. Drake, Grenville and Lane, and others interested 
with them in the schemes of colonization, were conspicuous 
in that great naval conflict. When the Armada was defeated, 
and England's supremacy on the sea established, thought was 
immediately given to the settlers at Roanoke Island. Mean- 
while three years had passed and no word had come from 
them and no word had gone to them. But with such dis- 
patch as the confusion of the times permitted, Raleigh and 
White organized a relief expedition and sent ships and sup- 
plies to the rescue of the lonely settlers. When the expedi- 
tion reached the island there was nowhere to be seen any sign 
or token of the colonists. Houses were in ruins and covered 
with vines. Around the doors grew vegetation which indi- 
cated that for a year at least the colony had been abandoned. 
Before leaving for England it had been agreed between White 
and the colonists that should it be found necessary to abandon 
the settlement before his return they should leave a mark on 
a tree by which he might know whither they had gone. It 
was understood that a cross would be the sign that they had 
left the colony in distress. He searched over the island and 
at last upon a tree he saw plainly graven the word "Croatan." 
There was, however, no cross to indicate that they had left 
in distress. After a rather desultory search of the neighbor- 
hood he returned home, reporting that the colony was lost. 
As a matter of fact, no really serious or diligent search was 
ever made for the lost colonists. Raleigh sent out, indeed, 
all told, five expeditions, but they only came to the immedi- 



12 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

ate neighborhood of Roanoke Island, and made neither a wide 
nor a thorough search for their lost countrymen. "Croatan" 
therefore remains an undeciphered word ; no man knows what 
was in the mind of the settler who carved it in the live-oak 
tree on Roanpke Island. If the island had been swallowed up 
by the sea this colony could not have been more completely 
lest to human sight and kin. History will probably never relate 
what became of thes,e brave men and women. Indians, how- 
ever, reported to the first settlers of Jamestown their knowl- 
edge of the paleface to the south. Some creditable historians 
believe that through the veins of the Croatan Indians of North 
Carolina flows the blood of Raleigh's settlers, and maintain 
that the settlers, forsaking their island home, were adopted by 
the Croatan Indians, and after a while intermarried with them. 
It is not improbable, therefore, that among the survivors of 
that old tribe are some to-day who are the descendants of 
Virginia Dare, the first English child born on American soil. 

The State of North Carolina has not been unmindful of 
the historical significance of Raleigh's attempt at settlement 
within its borders. Its capital city is named after this great 
English statesman; and upon the site of old Fort Raleigh 
there has been erected a monument commemorating this great, 
if unsuccessful, enterprise. Upon the monument is written 
this inscription: 

"On this site in July-August, 1585 (O. S.), colo- 
nists, sent out from England by Sir Walter Raleigh, 
built a fort, called by them 'The New Fort in Vir- 
ginia.' 

"These colonists were the first settlers of the Eng- 
lish race in America. They returned to England in 
July, 1586, with Sir Francis Drake. 

"Near this place was born, on the 18th of August, 
1587, Virginia Dare, the first child of English parents 
born in America, daughter of Ananias Dare and 



THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE ISLAND. 13 

Eleanor White, his wife, members of another band of 
colonists, sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1587. 

"On Sunday, August 20, 1587, Virginia Dare 
was baptized. Manteo, the friendly chief of the Hat- 
teras Indians, had been baptized on the Sunday pre- 
ceding. These baptisms were the first known cele- 
brations of a Christian sacrament in the territory of 
the thirteen original United States." 

None of the early English efforts at colonization were alto- 
gether failures, for each of them contributed something to 
the world's wider knowledge, and made more sure the ulti- 
mate success that followed. Together they constituted that 
inevitable John the Baptist, whose voice crying in the wilder- 
ness, and whose hands casting up the King's highway, pre- 
pared the way for the coming of larger dispensation. 

This chapter must not be dismissed without an added word 
concerning Sir Walter Raleigh, the prophet and apostle of 
American colonization. Concerning him, Canon Kingsly 
said, "To this one man, under the providence of God, the 
whole "United States of America owe their existence." 

First and last, he spent upon these efforts at colonization 
forty thousand pounds, which, in his day, was nc mean for- 
tune. For this there was no return except the satisfaction that 
his efforts made more possible the realization of the dream 
that had been the inspiration of his life. His mighty heart 
beat responsive to the great times in which he lived. It was 
the era of the renaissance in literature, of reform in religion 
and of commercial enterprise and adventure. Canon Farrar 
says most beautifully of this period, "The glory of England in 
that day was as when the aloe rushes into its crimson flower." 
Trie flower of chivalry, of letters, of the arts and sciences, was 
breaking into the imperial bloom of the Elizabethan day. 
This atmosphere was congenial to Raleigh's great spirit, and 



J4 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

he stood conspicuous in that splendid coteiie that gathered 
about the Elizabethan court. In him gathered at once the re- 
finements, the culture, the high moral earnestness, the chivalry 
and daring of his unequaled day, and to him, as to no other 
man, came clear, full and steadfast, the vision of a new Eng- 
land, representing and perpetuating the old England upon the 
western shores beyond the sea. 

In him came all the contrasts and paradox of life. If 
there was to him a bright and glorious day, there was also a 
long and dark night. If in the noonday of his splendid career 
"he was a man at whom men gazed as at a star," in the even- 
ing he staggered toward the infinite night, a lonely man, de- 
crepit and discredited. 

In the reign of James I. he was unjustly accused of trea- 
son, and imprisoned for a number of years. During this time 
he wrote his "History pf the World," and constantly urged 
the colonizing of America. In 1618, eleven years after the 
Settlement of Jamestown, he was executed. With a single 
day's notice he went forth to his execution, not reluctant or 
afraid. 

On the morning of his execution he was visited by his 
wife and a number of his friends. They were slow to leave, 
so Raleigh dismissed them, saying, "I have a long journey 
to make, therefore I must take my leave of you." When 
they had departed he turned to the executioner and asked 
if he might see the ax. The headsman hesitated, where- 
upon Raleigh said to him calmly : "Let me see it. Dost thou 
think I am afraid of it?" Having passed his fingers across 
the blade, he calmly remarked : "It is a sharp medicine, but 
one that will cure all of my diseases." He then walked to 
the scaffold and said to the executioner: "When I stretch 
forth my hands, dispatch me." Thereupon he quietly laid 
his head upon the block, with his face to the east, and 



THE LOST COLONY OF ROANOKE ISLAND. 15 

stretched forth his hands. The executioner was so unnerved 
that he either did not observe Raleigh's action, or was unwill- 
ing to proceed with the execution. Raleigh again stretched 
forth his hands, and still the executioner made no motion. 
Then Raleigh cried, "What dost thou fear? Strike, man! 
strike!" At last the executioner raised the ax and with one 
stroke severed from the body the head of England's polished 
courtier and far-seeing statesman. 

Raleigh had proposed England's colonial policy and had 
lived to see the establishment of a successful colony. In the 
very year that he was executed the London Company had re- 
organized, and was preparing to give to Sir Georg-e Yeardley, 
as Governor of Virginia, instructions which were to result in 
the establishment of the first legislative assembly in Amer- 
ica ; instructions broad enough in their scope to pave the way 
for an American democracy. 

In the Tercentennial Commemoration of 1907 Raleigh will 
not be forgotten. The Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion are planning to place on Jamestown Island a reproduction 
of Hayes-Barton, the birthplace of Raleigh, whom Dean Stan- 
ley has designated as "The Father of the United States." 

Some years ago, under the direction of Canon Farrar, there 
was placed in Westminster Abbey a memorial window, given 
by Americans, to commemorate this brilliant statesman and 
his great labors on behalf of American colonization. On this 
window was inscribed the following lines from James Russell 
Lowell, the American Minister at the Court of St. James: 

"From England's breast we drew 

Such milk as bids us remember whence we came. 
Proud of her past, wherefrom our present grew, 
This window we inscribe with Raleigh's name." 



CHAPTER II. 
A GREAT TRUST— THE LONDON COMPANY. 

The efforts at colonization made by Gilbert and by Raleigh 
showed that the task was too large and grave to be discharged 
by individual resource. The failures of Raleigh especially em- 
phasized that the planting of colonies should not be under- 
taken by individuals. Soon it began to be conceived that what 
might not be done by an individual might be achieved by a 
corporation. Thus early in the development of our civiliza- 
tion came the suggestion of a trust or combine, the last and 
consummate flower of which we have in these days. 

The proposal of a great commercial company for colonizing 
and christianizing the New World, when suggested in Eng- 
land, was seized upon with exceeding avidity. It seems as 
though the spirit of daring and adventure, hitherto expressed 
in other ways^ sought now to find expression in the great com- 
mercial and colonizing schemes. The conception of trading 
companies developed from an idea indigenous to English soil 
and multiplied most rapidly in Holland, France, Sweden, Den- 
mark, and even in Scotland and Russia. An incomplete list 
will show that from the years 1554 to 1698 there were in these 
various countries not less than seventy of these companies 
chartered for commercial and colonizing purposes. Usually 
the companies were organized with regard both to colonizing 
and to commerce. The two ideas were mutually dependent, 
the success of one carrying with it the success of the other. 
According to exigency, therefore, emphasis was put upon the 

16 



A GREAT TRUST— THE LONDON COMPANY. 17 

one or the other idea as circumstances seemed to require. 
These companies were awarded by the crown certain privi- 
leges of trade, grants of territory and rights of government, 
subject to such scrutiny and modifications as the government 
might afterwards seek to impose. The returns to the crown 
were to be in certain tributes, increase of commerce and ex- 
tension of territory. 

Of the English chartered companies, for wealth, scope of 
operation and influence, stability and permanency, the East 
India Company was the most conspicuous. It received its 
charter from Queen Elizabeth in 1600, and was given an abso- 
lute monopoly over trade in all countries lying between the 
Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan. The charter 
was granted to over one hundred and twenty-five stockholders, 
and its government was placed in the hands of a governor, 
deputy governor, and twenty-four members of a directing 
hoard to be chosen annually by the stockholders in their gen- 
eral assembly or court. This company is of importance in re- 
lation to Virginia because its charter was closely followed by 
King James. Moreover, the British East India Company was 
the most remarkable trading and colonizing company that the 
world ever saw. It conquered all of India for England, laid 
the foundation of great wealth for British merchants, and was 
not finally dissolved until 1874. 

Before the last failure of Raleigh's efforts the idea of char- 
tering a company to colonize Virginia occurred tc him, and 
to that end he effected an organization for carrying out his 
scheme. He turned over to it part, if not all, of the rights 
and concessions that he had secured from the Queen. Some- 
what later than this a more serious and general movement oc- 
curred looking to a chartered company organized more nearly 
along the lines of the East India Company and other com- 
panies then in existence. To encourage this movement there 



18 COLONIAL VIRGINIA 

appeared an exceedingly able and effective' document, sup- 
posed to have been inspired and written by Mr. Hakluyt. The 
paper set forth "Reasons or motives for raising of a publique 
stocke to be imploied for the peopling and discovering of such 
countries as maye be founde most convenient for the supplie 
of those defects which this realme of England most requireth." 
Concerning the necessity for such an organization, the paper 
makes this cogent statement: "Private purees are cowld comp- 
forts to adventurers, and have ever ben founde fatall to all 
interprices hitherto undertaken by the English, by reason of 
the delaies, jealocies and unwillingnes to backe the project 
which succeeded not at the first attempt." 

The success of a similar scheme organized in Holland is 
cited as an example of what might be done under English 
auspices: "The example of the Hollanders is verie pregnante 
by a maine backe or stocke having effected marvelous mat- 
ters in traffique and navigacon in a few years." The real 
argument of the paper is that England, to keep abreast with 
other nations of the world, will have to build up her com- 
merce, and that England's chances for colonial dominions 
yielding large revenues would be cut off if France and Spain 
are allowed to monopolize the American lands. The result 
of colonizing would mean that the "merchandize increasing 
thereby, the realme will be inriched yearly by manie thou- 
sand pounds, and the King's imposte and customs increased." 
Very adroitly does the paper seek to insinuate the scheme 
into the King's favor: "It would savour too much of affec- 
tacon of a popular state to levie monies without imparting 
some convenient portion to His Majestic. That portion ought 
not to be smale that it should seame to undervalue the King's 
greatness and favour." Wise Mr. Hakluyt. 

Finally, in the year 1606, the King granted a charter to two 
companies known as the London and Plymouth Companies, 



A GREAT TRUST— THE LONDON COMPANY. 19 

it being understood that the sphere of operation of the Ply- 
mouth Company should be in northern Virginia, and that of 
the London Company should be in southern Virginia, it be- 
ing stipulated that the southern boundary of northern Virginia 
should come to the Potomac River, and that the northern 
boundary of southern Virginia should reach as far as the Hud- 
son River. In other words, the lands between the Huds'on and 
Potomac Rivers were assigned to both companies, with the 
proviso that the company last planting a colony should not 
come nearer than one hundred miles of any settlement pre- 
viously founded by the other company. 

The charter of the London Company was granted by 
name to Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard 
Hakluyt and Edward-Maria Wingfield. All of these save 
Hakluyt came at one time or another to Jamestown. Wing- 
field came as president of the council of the first colony; 
Gates as first absolute governor, in 1609, and Somers as ad- 
miral. Gates lived in Virginia, possibly at Jamestown, from 
161 1 to 1614. Hakluyt was prebendary of Westminster, and 
remained in England to encourage the adventurers. He pub- 
lished many accounts of the voyages by others to the New 
World. 

The charter of the Plymouth Company was granted to 
Raleigh Gilbert, William Parker, Thomas Hamhan and 
George Popham. Raleigh Gilbert was a son of Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert and a nephew of Sir Walter Raleigh. William 
Parker was a rich merchant of Plymouth. The incorporators 
of this company set themselves immediately about the work 
of organization. The Plymouth Company worked with more 
dispatch, and in May, 1606, sent out a colony which was 
planted near the mouth of the Kennebec River. Here they 
immediately built a fort, storehouse, church, and a few cabins 
in which to live. There was instituted immediately furious 



20 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

and futile search for gold and silver. Their storehouse was 
consumed with fire. The winter was exceedingly severe 
and hard upon these unacclimated settlers, all too poorly- 
housed and fed. In the course of the winter Captain Pop- 
ham died. On the opening of spring there came a ship from 
England bringing further supplies, but it also brought the 
tidings that Chief Justice Popham, who was the chief sponsor 
for the colony, and that Raleigh Gilbert's elder brother, to 
whose estate he was heir ; were both dead. These tidings, 
added to the trials and sufferings of the severe winter, 
seemed to furnish sufficient reason for abandoning the at- 
tempt at settlement, and Gilbert, with all the settlers, re- 
turned immediately to England. This was the only serious 
attempt ever made by the Plymouth Company. 

Meanwhile the London Company had not been idle in its 
efforts to prepare an expedition for southern Virginia, and 
by December, 1606, three ships were equipped for the voyage 
on the ocean. The Susan Constant, of one hundred tons 
burden, was commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, 
and was the flagship of the little fleet, for Captain Newport 
was in charge of the expedition. The Goodspeed, of forty 
tons burden, was commanded by Bartholomew Gosnold, who 
had persuaded Gates, Somers, Hakluyt and Wingfield to 
secure a charter from the King. The Discovery was only of 
twenty tons burden, and was commanded by John Ratcliffe. 
There were one hundred and five settlers, besides the crews 
of the several ships. These sailed from England on the last 
day of December, 1606. These little vessels proved to be the 
advance guard of an infinite argosy plying between the shores 
of the Old World and of the New. 

The story of the London Company is one of significance 
and thrilling interest. From a purely, mercenary beginning, 
however, accompanied with other motives, there was a steady 



A GREAT TRUST— THE LONDON COMPANY. 21 

evolution and flowering toward a most high and unselfish 
patriotic motive and desire. In carrying out its great schemes 
it came to be one of the most potent agencies of modern 
times in widening and establishing human liberty. Its his- 
tory is, therefore, the story of a long struggle toward larger 
rights and liberty. The growth in membership, of interest 
on the part of the English people, of influence both at home 
and abroad, was slow, to be sure, but very real and substan- 
tial. Its membership represented all phases of English life. 
Prominent men in all learned professions as well as in mer- 
cantile and industrial life became leaders in the movement. 
Three different charters were granted to the company by the 
crown. In the enlargement of powers and increase of lib- 
erty each was in advance of the other. 

The first charter, granted in 1606, gave small liberty to 
the colonists. The affairs of the company were to be man- 
aged by a council of thirteen residents in England and ap- 
pointed by the King. The council in England was to appoint 
from the settlers a council in Virginia. The settlers were 
granted certain rights, such as the privilege of holding lands 
and trial by jury. Five offenses, and none other, were made 
punishable with death: murder, manslaughter, incest, rape 
and adultery, and no plea of benefit of clergy was allowable 
except in case of manslaughter. The right to the benefit of 
clergy for this particular crime existed in America down to 
the Revolution, and the person pleading it was punished by 
being burned in the hand. It was also decreed that an of- 
fender should be tried in the colony where he committed an 
offense, the violation of which principle was one of the causes 
of the American Revolution. All excesses, drunkenness or 
otherwise, should be punished. It was also decreed that, for 
five years at least, the adventurers should hold all land, pro- 
ducts and returns from trade, mines, and so forth, in a com- 



22 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

mon stock, and that there should be a treasurer or cape mer- 
chant to handle the goods and property of the adventurers. 
In matters of religion the Church of England was to furnish 
all the soul comforts that the colonists might require. This 
provision was probably wise, for had there been representa- 
tives of other phases of Christianity, strife and contention 
would have been inevitable. 

A second charter, drafted by no other than Sir Edwin 
Sandys, was granted in 1609. The company was made into 
a great corporation, composed of some six hundred and fifty- 
nine of the most distinguished nobles, knights, gentlemen and 
merchants of England, and some fifty-six city companies of 
London. The prerogatives of the company and the liberties 
of the colonists were somewhat enlarged. Thomas Smythe 
was appointed treasurer, and the Earl of Southampton and 
fifty-one others were appointed a council resident in England. 
In this council were fourteen members of the House of Lords 
and thirty members of the House of Commons. This council 
had the right to make all regulations and to determine the 
form of government for the colony. 

A third charter was granted in 1612, extending the boun- 
daries of Virginia and fixing a weekly court to be held by 
the council in England, and four general courts a year of the 
company. One interesting clause of this charter was the 
privilege to establish lotteries for the promotion of the colony. 
All former privileges were reaffirmed, and the charter ex- 
pressly stated that all laws were to be made by the company, 
and that in case of any question of the interpretation of the 
charter, the General Court should construe it liberally in 
favor of the company. It was under the operation of this 
charter that self-rule was obtained for the colonists. By the 
privileges of this charter the London Company finally estab- 
lished an assembly for the making of laws governing the 



A GREAT TRUST— THE LONDON COMPANY. 23 

coionists. To the London Company, planted in the heart of 
London, under the shadow of the King's throne, must be ac- 
corded the glory of projecting the first legislative assembly 
on the new continent. Hitherto a proceeding like this had 
never been known. It is impossible to have imagined that 
such a thing could have occurred in any other European coun- 
try, thus indicating how largely the idea of human rights had 
been developed among the English-speaking people. 

During the struggle between James and Parliament, the 
London Company came to be, in view of the fact that so many 
of its members sat in Parliament, the arena in which was 
discussed and ventilated questions of public moment and in- 
terest. So popular did it become, so far-reaching its plans, 
so bold and frank its utterances, especially in matters touch- 
ing the rights of the King, and so effective its influence upon 
all classes of English people, that the King finally grew sus- 
picious of it and determined in some way to restrict the 
sphere of its operations, and failing in that, to abrogate the 
various charters by which it had the warrant of life. 

In May, 1619, Sir Thomas Smythe, who had been ap- 
pointed by the King a commissioner of the navy, requested 
to be relieved of the office of treasurer. Sir Edwin Sandys 
was elected as his successor. Sandys belonged to the Lib- 
eral party, and soon became very obnoxious to the King. 
It was at the election in 1620 that the King first showed a 
disposition to seriously meddle in the conduct of the affairs 
of the company. It was the intention of! the majority of the 
company to retain Sir Edwin Sandys as treasurer, with 
whose administration they had every reason to be pleased. 
When the election was about to be taken, certain gentlemen 
from the King's household interrupted the proceedings. 
These gentlemen declared that the King was unalterably op- 
posed to the re-election of Sir Edwin Sandys, and presented 



24 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

four names from whom a selection was to be made. This 
interruption was received in a silence that foreboded the long 
struggle to death that was to come. It was first demanded 
that the King's messengers be sent out of the room during 
the discussion of these matters, but the Earl of Southampton 
said, with significant boldness, "Let them stay and hear what 
is said." Immediately there was a cry made for the reading 
of the charter. "The charter! the charter! God save the 
King!" When the charter was read, some one rose and said, 
"Mr. Chairman, the words of the charter are plain. The elec- 
tion of a treasurer is left to the free choice of this company. 
His Majesty seems to labor under some misunderstanding, 
and I doubt not these gentlemen will undeceive him." Upon 
this being reported to His Majesty there was not lacking the 
evidence that he was at once seriously surprised and greatly 
perturbed over the course things seemed to be taking. After 
a little delay, he sent back to the meeting a rather mollifying 
statement that he of course had no desire to restrict the com- 
pany's choice to the names he had mentioned, although he 
would really prefer that they should choose the devil rather 
than Sir Edwin Sandys. When the meeting was again called 
tc order, Sandys withdrew his name and refused to stand for 
re-election. On coming to a ballot the vote was taken on 
the names the King had sent in and on the name of the Earl 
of Southampton, which the opposition had substituted in 
Sandys's stead. The result of the ballot exposed an exceed- 
ingly meagre vote for the King's candidates, so small, indeed, 
that some one ventured to move that the ballot should be dis- 
pensed with and that the Earl of Southampton should be 
elected by acclamation. By the election of Southampton the 
company guarded against an open rupture with the crown, 
but at the same time elected a man as treasurer who would 
not change the policy of the company as it had been admin- 



A GREAT TRUST— THE LONDON COMPANY. 25 

istered by Sandys. After Southampton's election the King's 
hostility became even more inveterate and aggressive. Nor 
was his hatred softened or soothed by the fact that in the 
Parliament which he had so summarily dismissed in 1622, 
there were more than one hundred members who were also 
members of the London Company, many of whom partici- 
pated actively in its affairs. 

In his search for charges that he might use against the 
company, and that would give him an excuse for the abridg- 
ing or the abrogating of these powers, a gentleman by the 
name of Nathaniel Butler, who had been holding some official 
position in the Bermudas, came to his assistance. This volu- 
ble gentleman had been summoned home to answer charges 
concerning his official conduct in the Bermudas, and it well 
behooved him to becloud the political horizon so that in the 
confusion attention might be turned otherwise than upon 
himself. On his way home from the Bermudas he stopped 
in Virginia for a few months. It so happened that his visit 
fell at the time of the Indian massacre in 1622, and his ser- 
vices as a soldier were called into requisition. On reaching 
England he immediately gave out certain utterances unfavor- 
able to the Virginia Colony and damaging to the administra- 
tion of the London Company. The chaiges were made at 
length and given wide publicity. There were at that time resi- 
dent in London a number of Virginians intimately acquainted 
with the affairs of the colony. These filed answers to the 
charges in the way of affidavits and other positive assevera- 
tions, denying in toto and in detail the charges. These re- 
plies were not accepted by the crown, however, and the op- 
ponents of the company as being at all satisfactory ; but the 
King at once appointed a commission, made up of gentlemen 
known to be in opposition to the company, to report upon the 
condition of its affairs. Some of these commissioners went 



26 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

to Virginia and undertook, by means fair or foul, to secure 
evidence that should corroborate the accusations of Butler. 
They went before the Assembly seeking an official utterance 
upon the matter, even begging that the Assembly should ask 
for the abrogation of the charter of the company. Unfor- 
tunately for the commission, Sir Thomas Argall was a mem- 
ber of it, and of his misrule and misconduct the members of 
the General Assembly had a very distinct recollection. The 
commissioners found at the hands of the General Assembly 
no encouragement whatever. Indeed, there was immediately 
sent from Virginia a commissioner who bore a message to 
the King that the colonists were entirely satisfied with the 
London Company's administration, and that rather than re- 
turn to the conditions as they had existed when Sir Thomas 
Smythe was treasurer, at which time the governors had been 
appointed by royal favor, they asked that the King would 
send out commissioners and have them hanged. Before this 
appeal from Virginia reached England two things had been 
done. The accusations of Butler had been formally and of- 
ficially laid before the company, with the demand that an 
answer not later than the following Monday be returned, the 
day of the official notice being Thursday of Holy Week, 1623. 
Nicholas Ferrar, to whom the notice was handed, protested 
that sufficient time had not been given for a proper and ade- 
quate answer, but the crown and officials insisted that the 
answer must be forthcoming not later than Monday. Ferrar 
got together as many members as was possible that after- 
noon in his mother's parlor. The task of framing the an- 
swer was assigned to Lord Cavendish, Nicholas Ferrar and 
Sir Edwin Sandys. Their answer was masterful and irre- 
futable, but little difference did it make to the King, bent 
upon the destruction of the company. Moreover, the Attor- 
ney-General had advised the crown that it would be wise and 



A GREAT TRUST— THE LONDON COMPANY. 27 

proper to take away the charter of the company, and sug- 
gested that quo warranto proceedings be immediately filed. 
When the notice of these proceedings came to the officers 
of the company, in their distress they appealed to Parliament, 
which had just been reassembled by the King. The petition 
filed by the company was looked upon favorably by many 
members of the House of Parliament. The King anticipated 
any action on their part, however, by sending a message call- 
ing the attention of Parliament to the fact that the business 
of managing colonies belonged to the King and his Privy 
Council, and that it was none of their affair, and that there 
must be no meddling on their part. While the Parliament 
was sympathetic with the company in its effort to save itself, 
it was too much concerned in other grave matters, and felt 
that it could not afford to have any lengthy imbroglio with 
the crown. So it fell out that Parliament took no action, 
except to lay the appeal on the table. The quo warranto pro- 
ceedings were then rushed to a swift conclusion. The Chief 
Justice, before whom the matter was carried, ruled against 
the company and in favor of the King, as everybody antici- 
pated he would do. Whether he was influenced by the argu- 
ment of the Attorney-General (that the charter was defective, 
because, if carried out, it might result in the depopulating of 
England, in that it had the right to ferry Englishmen across 
the seas and make them settlers on a new continent, and that 
if this ferrying process could be kept up long enough the in- 
evitable result would be the depopulation of England and the 
destruction of all its institutions), or whether his decision was 
based upon some other technicality, does not seem to have 
been definitely ascertained. At any rate, the King proceeded 
at once to take away the charter of the company. Notice was 
sent to Nicholas Ferrar with the demand that he forthwith de- 
liver over all the papers and official documents, with the re- 



28 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

cords of the company. Ferrar was much better prepared to 
obey this order than was anticipated. So much as a year be- 
fore it had occurred to him that some such thing might trans- 
pire, and he prudently sought to save duplicate copies of all 
papers and records in his keeping. John Ferrar, his brother, 
wrote: "About a year before the dissolution of the company 
(June, 1623) Mr. Nicholas Ferrar, suspecting that the com- 
pany's records would be finally concealed or destroyed, pro- 
cured an expert clerk fairly to copy out all the court books 
and all other writing belonging to them, and caused them all 
to be carefully collated with the originals and afterwards at- 
tested upon oath by the examiners to be true copies, the 
transcribing of which cost him out of his own pocket fifty 
pounds, but this he thought one of the best services he could 
do the company." This account of John Ferrar seems to dis- 
pose of the very pretty story that these documents and papers 
were copied in a very short time after the demand was made 
for them. These copies entered into the hands of the Earl 
of Southampton. After both Southampton and his son and 
successor had passed away, these precious manuscripts wete 
bought from the executor of the estate by William Byrd, of 
Virginia. From the hands of the Byrd family they passed to 
William Stith, president of William and Mary College. 
From the possession of Stith the manuscripts went next to 
Peyton Randolph, and after his death they were secured by 
Thomas Jefferson, and when the Library of the United 
States bought the library of Jefferson, these manuscripts were 
included. The original documents are nowhere to be found 
among the British records. It is to these preserved manu- 
scripts that we are indebted for our knowledge concerning 
these interesting incidents in American history. 

Though the London Company was no longer to manage 
the Virginia Colony, its work had been too thoroughly well 



A GREAT TRUST— THE LONDON COMPANY. 29 

done to be defeated even by such rude and harsh proceedings 
as these. The colonists were still permitted to hold sessions 
of the General Assembly and make laws for their own gov- 
ernment. The governors appointed by the crown were not 
always to their liking, to be sure, but in the main were suc- 
cessfully held in check and under control by the General As- 
sembly, commonly called the House of Burgesses. 

The splendid work of the London Company cannot pos- 
sibly be exaggerated. Mistakes were, of course, often made. 
Oftentimes, especially at the outset, there was petulance and 
impatience over the slow development of the colony. Great 
outlays of money and time were being made, and from their 
preconceived notion of things, it was only natural that they 
should expect and demand some substantial return. When, 
however, in the course of the years the dreams that had cast 
a glamor over the early undertakings were shattered and dis- 
sipated, and the company was made to realize that though 
much which they had set out to accomplish was impossible 
and could not be achieved, still much, after all incomparably 
better, might be accomplished, with a very high and un- 
selfish patriotism the company lent itself in every way pos- 
sible to the preservation of the colony. History furnishes no 
finer example of English courage and stubbornness than was 
exhibited in the devotion of this company to the great task 
of colonizing with Englishmen the western continent. In the 
celebration of the first permanent settlement at Jamestown, 
a large place is well deserved by this company in the com- 
memoration of the great events and institutions incident to 
the settlement in Virginia. But for the stubborn persistency 
and unswerving devotion of this company, even after it had 
been realized that there never could be any adequate financial 
returns, the colony would soon have perished out of the sight 
of man. Too much honor cannot possibly be given to this 
splendid organization of the Englishmen of the seventeenth 
century. 



CHAPTER III. 

REASONS FOR COLONIZATION. 

A study of the motives back of American colonization will 
be, at this early juncture, pertinent and profitable. It has 
been before remarked that this was the era of the renaissance 
of letters, of reformation in religion, and of colonization. 
Under these stimulating influences the horizon of the people 
had become wonderfully broadened, and the world had become 
wonderfully enlarged. There were no stories so interesting 
as those of adventure and exploration. No form of literature 
appealed to the people as did the narratives of travelers and 
discoverers. Rude maps and charts of ancient and distant 
countries became most interesting and exciting. Tracts on 
the subject of colonization were circulated and received with 
almost religious fervor. The dramatists of the day added 
piquancy and interest to their plays by adroitly incorporating 
incidents and allusions to colonization. Some serious ser- 
mons were preached to show that by means of colonies the 
Christian world had a great opportunity for the spread of 
the gospel. The most effective piece of literature on the sub- 
ject was a production of Mr. Hakluyt, known as i "Discourse 
on Western Planting." Hakluyt's paper was written after 
the return from the coasts of North Carolina of the two ships 
which Raleigh had first sent out, bringing wonderful stories 
of the beauty and fertility of the new land. It was intended 
as an appeal to the mind of Queen Elizabeth, so as to engage 
her co-operation in future colonizing schemes. The raison 



REASONS FOR COLONIZATION. 31 

d'etre of this almost universal interest in colonization will 
be found in the existing condition of things at that time, and 
these will disclose the motives of American colonization. 

Enlarged geographical knowledge had not dislodged from 
the minds of the adventurers of the day the belief that the 
American continent would furnish a short passage to the 
East Indies. This notion was persisted in long after it should 
have been clear to every sane mind that there was np pos- 
sible ground for its existence. The seventeenth century was 
well advanced before the idea was given over, and until this 
time it must be regarded as one of the dominant motives in 
efforts at American colonization. 

Since, by reason of political complications, the overland 
route to India had been cut off by the Turks, and Portugal 
and Holland having, in a great measure, the control of the 
trade around the south of Africa, there had been the persistent 
dream that a route might be found over which England would 
have complete control, and that all the commodities and luxu- 
ries from India used in England could be brought in English 
vessels. Every expedition and colonizing enterprise carried 
official instruction that search be made for the passage to the 
South Seas. 

Serious minded men with pencil and paper had made 
demonstrations that this passage, without a doubt, existed. 
George Best declared that "the only thing in the world left 
undone whereby a notable mind might be made famous and 
fortunate," was the discovery of the route to the South Seas. 
It was the passionate purpose of the adventurer of the day 
to find that passage. The spirit of adventure turned toward 
this passage as the same spirit of our day seeks stubbornly 
the North Pole. Ralph Lane understood the Indian to say 
that the Roanoke River sprang from a rock so close to the 



32 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

sea that oftentimes in storms its waters were made brackish 
by the beating in of the waves of the sea. 

At the time John Smith was captured by the Indians he 
was looking for this passage to the East Indies in the Chick- 
ahominy Swamp. Hudson, in his fear that somebody would 
be ahead of him, left home aforetime, and against instruction, 
sailed up the Hudson River, believing confidently that that 
noble stream would disclose to him the long sought passage. 
Mr. Hakluyt entertained a fear lest the nearness of Florida 
to the Pacific Ocean would become too commonly known. A 
writer by the name of Briggs, quoted in Waterhouse's decla- 
ration, and likewise quoted by Mr. Purchas, said, "The Indian 
Ocean, which we commonly call the South Sea, lieth on the 
west and northwest side of Virginia on the other side of the 
mountain beyond our Falls (James River) and openeth into 
a free passage." So late as 1669 Lederer, the distinguished 
German explorer, spoke very hopefully concerning the prox- 
imity of the Pacific Ocean to the North Carolina coast. 

When the hope of finding this route by some waterway 
was given over, then it was suggested that a land route might 
be discovered which would answer all practical purposes. 
Very few of the explorers had any other idea but that the 
American continent was a comparatively narrow strip of land. 
John Smith seemed, however, to have reached a conclusion, 
somewhat vague it is true, that the continent extended in- 
ward many hundreds of miles. However, for a iong time it 
was hoped that by means of colonization this passage, either 
by land or by water, might at last be discovered. 

The next motive may be regarded as an economic one. 
The peculiar agricultural conditions of the day had brought 
about a changed order in English society. The demand for 
wool had become so great and the prices were so high that 
no other form of agriculture afforded such large returns as 



REASONS FOR COLONIZATION. 33 

sheep raising. The attention of the English farmer was 
largely turned in this direction. Vast areas of land that had 
hitherto been subdivided many times and distributed among 
the peasant and poorer classes for agricultural purposes were 
now devoted entirely to the pasturing of vast flocks of sheep. 
This resulted not only in throwing out of work a large num- 
ber of people hitherto employed, but in the diminishing of the 
food products of the country. Soil that had been devoted 
to the cultivation of foodstuffs was now devoted to sheep 
raising. The unemployed became a pauper class, dependent 
either upon the bounty of the church or of the state. When 
the church properties were confiscated, the church had no 
means of affording charities, and it came about, therefore, 
that the entire burden of the support of these pauper classes 
was thrown upon the state. It thus became one of the grave 
and urgent problems of the day as to how to provide for these 
vast hordes of unemployed people. To thoughtful economists 
of the day, colonization seemed to offer a solution to the 
problem. It was ably urged that by the establishment of 
these colonies England would be relieved of its superfluous 
population, and employment would be given to all the idle 
and needy classes of people. This condition of things will 
explain why it was not very difficult to secure emigrants for 
the experiment of colonization. It will also explain the char- 
acter of many of those who made up the first expeditions to 
America. 

The commercial motive, as is always the case, was one of 
the strongest and most persistent influences of the day. Some 
of the leading and most successful merchants of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries became interested in these move- 
ments. The commercial side appealed especially to Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert. The enterprising and far-seeing merchantmen 
desired to open up other markets for the products of England. 



34 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Mr. Hakluyt called their attention to the increase of English 
wealth as the result of the market which was found in the 
Netherlands for English commodities. This instance was 
cited as an example of what might be done in America. It 
was further apprehended that certain commodities that Eng- 
land constantly stood in need of might be produced and fur- 
nished by America. Exaggerated ideas concerning the re- 
sourcefulness and fertility of the country had been engen- 
dered by the reports of various expeditions. It was seriously 
thought that all the things that had hitherto come from India 
might be grown on the soil and under the skies of what was 
then believed a tropical America. If products formerly ob" 
tainable only from India could be procured from America and 
under English control, it was wisely concluded that vast ad- 
vantages would be secured to the English people. It was 
thought to be a grievous matter that England should be com- 
pelled to spend her money in buying wines and silks from 
southern Europe and forced to secure her naval stores from 
the Baltic, and it was confidently expected that these things 
might be easily secured with proper care and cultivation from 
America. 

Mixed with these commercial motives was the strong 
conviction that the country was rich in precious metals. The 
stories that had come np concerning the vast wealth of South 
America and Mexico in these metals had long interested and 
excited the English people. In the play called "Eastward 
Ho" there is an exuberant mention made of the supposed 
richness of America in gold, silver and precious stones. One 
of the characters is made to say, "I tell thee, gold is more 
plentiful in Virginia than copper is with us, and for so much 
red copper as I can bring I will have thrice its weight in gold. 
All their dripping pans are of pure gold, and all the prisoners 
they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds 



REASONS FOR COLONIZATION. 35 

they go forth on holidays and gather them by the seashores 
to hang on their children's coats and to pin in their children's 
caps, as commonly as our children wear saffron gilt brooches 
engrossed with holes in them." This seems a most grotesque 
extravaganza, but it greatly stirred the people, and is scarcely 
less lurid than the tidings that came from the sober leaders 
in the settlement at Jamestown. Edward Maria Wingfield 
wrote from Virginia urging that succor be immediately sent, 
"lest the all-devouring Spaniards lay their hands upon the 
gold-showing mountains, which, if I be so enabled, they shall 
never dare to think of." The yellow sides of the rising hills 
they seemed to think were filled with gold. In their frenzy 
they not only loaded one ship with sand that glistened, but 
would have loaded another a little later with the same stuff 
had it not been for the strong advice of the level-headed 
Smith, who somehow had got the notion that a cargo of cedar 
logs would be more valuable than a shipload of the yellow 
dirt that they were sending to their patrons in England. 

In order to keep interested the people back of the enter- 
prise in England, there were no pains spared to make it ap- 
pear that gold was easily accessible, and that very soon the 
colonists would be digging it out by the spadeful. They 
wrote home in this fashion: "No talk, no hope, no work; but 
dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, load gold." 

As an indication of the firm belief in the mineral wealth 
of Virginia, one has only to recall that King James always 
reserved for himself in every charter one-fifth of the value 
of such metals as might be found. So for very many years 
it was a part of the business of thee olony to make immediate 
and diligent search for mines of gold and silver. If an Indian 
was seen with any ornament that suggested silver or gold, 
he was immediately entreated to disclose the whereabout of 
mines. If an Indian offered up many remarks concerning a 



36 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

piece of copper which he wore, the colonists understood him 
to say that there were inexhaustible supplies of a metal like 
copper, but softer and. heavier, and they resorted to every 
expedient to ascertain the whereabouts of these mines. 

It will be seen a little later on that this commercial mo- 
tive did not go altogether unrewarded and unrealized, but 
in a direction hitherto totally unexpected and even unimag- 
ined. Gradually it began to dawn upon the minds of the 
leaders in these great colonizing schemes that there must 
be a disappointment in the realization of the original desires 
and plans in connection with American colonization, so that 
the motives explained above gradually gave way to the saner 
commercial views looking to the building up of a colonial 
empire for England. 

From the outset it was thought that the occupancy of 
America by the English would put a stop to the aggrandize- 
ment and encroachments of Spain. To plant upon the shores 
of America, at suitable distances, colonies, would be to se- 
cure strong strategic advantages in the matter of outposts 
that should stand in the way of any aggressive movement 
on the part of their inveterate enemy. Spain, under Philip 
the Second, was the dread of England, and Raleigh, above 
all Englishmen, saw the necessity of weakening Spanish 
power in America. And even after the power of Spain was 
so utterly broken as to be no longer dreaded by England, 
this patriotic motive remained, but sought expression along 
broader and more unselfish lines. When, therefore, distin- 
guished captains of industry were discouraged in their work 
of colonization and were disposed to surrender all leadership, 
there were other hands outstretched, willing to assume such 
grave responsibilities. Back of these hands were English 
pride and English determination that these colonizing schemes 
in America should not be permitted to fail, and, more than 



REASONS FOR COLONIZATION. 37 

that, that they should become beacon fires of human liberty 
in a new land. But for the operation of this high motive, 
the effort would have inevitably failed. With this patriotic 
motive was also associated a religious motive. 

In the document prepared by Mr. Hakluyt, and which 
was addressed to Queen Elizabeth, there is made this state- 
ment: "The western discovery will be greatly for the en- 
largement of the Gospel of Christ, wherewith the princes of 
the reformed religion are chiefly bound, among whom Her 
Majesty is the principal." 

The most conspicuous leaders in the agitation with refer- 
ence to colonization were among the clergymen of the Church 
cf England. Hakluyt, from whom we have made such fre- 
quent quotations, Symonds, Purchas and Crashaw were es- 
pecially useful and effective. It cannot be doubted but that 
at the first there was mixed with the motive the fear of Cath- 
olic rule in America. The authorities in the church looked 
with great alarm upon the slow encroachments of the Span- 
iards along the coast from Florida, knowing full well that 
Spanish occupancy meant Catholic supremacy. It was too 
soon after Henry VIII. and the Reformation for the new 
Church of England to view with any sort of satisfaction the 
advancement of the old mother church. Hence it is not un- 
reasonable to suspect that much of the religious fervor at the 
outset was more for the purpose of thwarting the Catholics 
than it was for real advancement of Christianity. It must 
be said, however, that this motive became more mixed as the 
years wore on, and that there was developed a very genuine 
ieligious enthusiasm over the conversion of the aborigines. 
Some one has truly said that the English Church caught its 
first missionary impulse in the effort to evangelize the In- 
dians. From time to time kidnapped aborigines had been 
brought over to England, and the sight of their naked and 



38 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

ignorant savagery greatly appealed to the people. "Naked 
slaves of the devil" they were called, in the mild terms of the 
day. 

Very early in the effort at colonization, provision was 
made for the conversion and education of the Indian youth. 
It was planned to build schools in which the Indian youths 
were to be educated, and where they were to be brought 
under Christian influences. It was even suggested that a 
number of these youths might be educated and trained in 
the Christian faith in England and then returned to their na- 
tive land to preach the Gospel. Compensation was offered 
to all who would take Indian youths into their afmilies and 
surround them with an atmosphere favorable to religion. 

This zeal was somewhat abated by the bitter animosities 
that gradually sprung up between the Indians and the colo- 
nists. However zealous the promoters of the cause might 
have been, it was very hard to preserve any enthusiasm among 
those who lived nearest to the Indians. The massacre of 
1622 created such a deep and widespread hatred of the In- 
dians that it was difficult to find anywhere serious desire and 
purpose to reach them with the Gospel, so that gradually the 
missionary zeal oozed out. 

To us in our day the deep religiousness of the English- 
men of the seventeenth century is somewhat amusing. The 
incongruities of the situation were numerous and striking. 
Along with the most outrageous and iniquitous conduct their 
religion went openly hand in hand, not only acquiescing in 
the wicked causes, but even advancing them. Admiral Drake, 
in those piratical cruises in which the seas were pilfered of 
their treasure and made red with the blood of his hapless vic- 
tims, carried with him always pious chaplains and observed 
regular honrs for service and worship, and made constant ao- 
peals to heaven for divine guidance and help in his nefarious 
work. 



REASONS FOR COLONIZATION. 39 

Frequently the relation of the early settlers with the In- 
dians exhibited the same incongruity. There was a most 
unconscious admixture of religion and unjust and hard cruel- 
ties. As it were they would set out to evangelize the Indian 
with the Bible in one hand and the gun in the other. One 
is made to wonder if savage shrewdness did not discover the 
inconsistency of the situation, and if it may not have been 
that this was one reason why the wily Indian was so slow 
in committing himself to the religion of the pale-faced Eng- 
lishmen. However this may be, it remains true that among 
the motives inspiring and maintaining the colonization of 
America was the strong and steadfast motive of religion. 

If in considering the reasons for colonization one recalls 
that the spirit of adventure was at its height, he will at once 
understand the eager responsiveness of the day to these ap- 
peals for colonization. The air was filled with the stories of 
strange seas and shores; of the storehouses of wealth that 
were to be had if discovered, and it was confidently believed 
that any expedition might soon return home laden with 
the infinite treasures of these unknown shores. And so on 
every hand there was this national alertness and this daring 
spirit of adventure, ready to enlist in any enterprise of ex- 
ploration and discovery. 

A study of these motives will reveal the fact that some 
of them lacked the quality of stability, and it was this quality 
that characterized at the outset the first attempts to settle 
Virginia. The colonists came with no expectation of making 
a permanent residence on these shores. Chiefly in evidence 
were the motives that urged the finding of the northern pas- 
sage, and the discovery of gold and silver. It is easy, there- 
fore, to see that these things, instead of promoting stability, 
added to the confusion and the delay of permanent settle- 
ment. Time and energy were wasted in fruitless exploration 



4 o COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

and in the futile endeavor to secure treasure. Had this time 
and energy been turned in the direction of cultivating the 
soil and building homes, the colony would have been saved 
untold misery, and would have found permanent establish- 
ment many years sooner than it did. This is one of the dis- 
tinctions to be made between the settlement at Plymouth 
Rock and the settlement at Jamestown. The colonists at 
Plymouth Rock came with a very determined purpose tp 
make for themselves new homes in the western continent, 
where they could have a form of worship according to their 
own views. They brought with them all of those domestic 
accessories that would contribute to the realization of this 
purpose, and immediately on landing they set themselves 
about permanent establishment, and it is said of them that 
not one of the company ever went back to England. 

Not until the vagaries connected with the finding of the 
northern passage and the dreams of gold and silver were 
shattered and dissipated by the stern realities of colonial life 
did these Virginia settlers begin to address themselves to 
the situation in such ways that meant their permanent es- 
tablishment. Not until by the cultivation of tobacco it was 
discovered that a product equal in value to gold and silver 
might be grown and easily marketed at exorbitant prices did 
these settlers begin to feel that it was worth while to build 
homes for themselves and to count on remaining permanently 
on Virginia soil. 

Another motive just beginning to stir into life, scarcely 
affecting the first expeditions to Virginia, became more and 
more assertive in the English life of the seventeenth century 
and grew in the course of years to be the strongest of ail 
the motives that brought people to the American shores. 
Gradually a growing dissatisfaction with the Stuart kings, 
and an increasing divergence of opinion concerning the divine 



REASONS FOR COLONIZATION. 41 

right of kings, came to permeate the lives of the English 
people. From time to time there came to Virginia men who 
dreamed of a larger liberty and a larger chance of life, holding 
perhaps in abeyance the thoughts and dreams that stirred 
their bosoms. This motive became crystallized into the move- 
ment of the Puritans and the Pilgrims. How rapidly the idea 
spread, and how strong and successful the motive became, 
the thousands that followed swiftly upon the heels of the 
Mayflower bear significant testimony. The entire settlement 
of the New England coast came about through the insistence 
of this motive, and may be taken as a protest against the 
doctrine of the divine right of kings. How impossible it was 
to resist the march and evolution of this new idea is abun- 
dantly witnessed by its growth among the Virginia settlers 
in spite of unpropitious surroundings, and by the lead and 
stand of Virginians in its behalf in after years. 



CHAPTER IV. 

JOHN SMITH, THE HERO OF JAMESTOWN. 

The little fleet of three ships that sailed away from England 
on the last day of the year 1606 did not reach Virginia until 
spring of the year following. They had stopped at the Canaries 
for two weeks for barter and rest. The first landing was 
made on April 26, 1607, at Cape Henry, where a cross was 
set up and fitting religious ceremonies observed. Moving 
leisurely up the coast from Cape Henry, the first stop was 
at Lynnhaven Bay, where the colonists had their first en- 
counter with the Indians. It seems that these Indians were 
surprised at an oyster roast, and were driven away only after 
some serious resistance. It was permitted the voyagers to 
regale themselves for the first time with the Lynnhaven oys- 
ter, which is "facile princeps" of all the crustaceans. Cer- 
tainly never before — it is to be seriously doubted if ever after- 
ward — had they tasted such oysters as they dug out of the 
»oa sting heap that the Indians had piled and baked together. 
The course of the colonists probably led them next to the 
point now known as Newport News. Here they were met by 
an Indian chief, offering welcome and hospitality, and giving 
every assurance of friendliness on the part of his peop'e. 
Moving up the river, which they named James in honor of 
the King, the settlers finally reached, on May 13, 1607, the 
peninsula on which they landed and began to build a town 
which they called James City. If we may believe the story 
of their voyage, it was one of storm, both without and within. 

42 



JOHN SMITH, THE HERO OF JAMESTOWN. 43 

'From the beginning there was strife, jealousy and suspicion 
among those who were destined to be the leaders in the new 
colony. Among the passengers was one John Smith. There 
was something in his manner and speech that was offensive 
to the leading spirits of the expedition. There was a certain 
confidence in his bearing, much volubility and boldness in 
his speech that was exasperating. So acute did the situation 
become during the voyage across the Atlantic that this Eng- 
lishman was finally put under arrest, and under this shadow 
lie landed at Jamestown. 

The story of his life hitherto corroborates the old saying 
that "truth is stranger than fiction." The story related by 
himself is exceedingly exciting and romantic. It would have 
been more easily believed if it had been put on record by 
other hands than his own. It runs something like this : 

When but a youth he ran away from his home, carrying 
with him his trifling belongings, and entered upon a wonder- 
ful career of adventure. While a mere lad he was ship- 
wrecked, and again, according to his own account, he was 
robbed at sea. He became a tramp and wanderer through 
France, where being attacked and robbed, he was left half 
dead and exceedingly near to perishing. Meeting this same 
horde of bandits later on, he reaped swift vengeance by slay- 
ing some of them. While on a ship carrying devout Catholics 
to the Easter celebrations at Rome, he was thrown overboard 
in order to appease a most furious storm for which his hereti- 
cal person was held responsible. Whatever became of the 
pious Christian voyagers after their most alarming experience, 
is not known. Smith himself partly floated and partly swam 
to a desolate island. From this island he was rescued by a 
passing ship. While on this ship there was an encounter with 
a Venetian argosy, and after a bloody conflict, in which he 



44 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

was conspicuous, the argosy was captured and its treasury- 
distributed between those engaged in the battle. 

Later on he joined the Germans, who were engaged in a 
fierce war against the Turks. As a soldier in the army pi 
Prince Sigismund, he had a memorable experience with three 
Turks who were the champions of the Turkish armies. In 
this encounter he slew first one and then another, and still 
another of the Turks, who, in turn, engaged him in duel. 
This exploit commanded for him at once the favor of the Ger- 
man army, and especially of Prince Sigismund, who made 
him a present of a handsome purse, and who afterwards 
gave him a patent of nobility, the coat-of-arms of which was 
a shield upon which were emblazoned three Turks' heads, 
commemorating the combat with the three Turks of the Mo- 
hammedan forces. 

Some time after this engaging pastime, in a most disas- 
trous battle with the Turks, he was captured and publicly 
sold as a slave in the streets of Constantinople. He was 
bought by a Turkish lady of rank, and whether true or not, 
Smith imagined that this same lady became greatly enamored 
of him. For some reason or other, the husband of this fair 
lady must have shared in Smith's imaginings, for Smith was 
tiansported and subjected to the care of a tender brother-in- 
law who lived on the boundaries of the Caspian Sea. For 
reasons that were not explained to Smith, he was cruelly 
treated, and again and again was wickedly beaten at the 
pleasure and caprice of the aforesaid brother-in-law. It 
turned out, however, that one day it came to be Smith's turn 
at the occupation of threshing, and the flail which had been 
used for> beating out the wheat was employed by him in 
pounding out the brains of his hard master. Seizing the 
horse of his deceased lord, with little ceremony and less de- 
lay, he rode away toward the Russian realm, and after some 



JOHN SMITH, THE HERO OF JAMESTOWN. 45 

weeks of wandering 1 and unutterable suffering, he reached 
a refuge of safety, from which he came to England just at 
the time that Gosnold and others were busy in the preparation 
of the expedition to Virginia. 

Whether one accepts the truthfulness of these stories re- 
lated above depends largely upon one's point of view. For- 
tunately for Smith, the most exciting and unlikely of the in- 
cidents narrated is corroborated by other and older records 
than his own. The story of the encounter with the Turks 
and the subsequent reward on the part of Sigismund are 
matters that had gone on record before Smith's relations con- 
cerning them had been made public. In all fairness, it would 
seem that there are three considerations that should deter- 
mine one's posture in this contention. First of all, Smith's 
personal character seems to have been far above the average 
type of morality in his day. It is testified of him that he was 
not given to much drink, nor to gambling, nor to profanity. 
There were not many of his day enjoying the same privileges 
and opportunities of whom these three things could be said 
v. ithout hope of contradiction. Second, it ought to be re- 
membered that the day in which he lived was a day of large 
exaggerations. The terms in which ordinary things were de- 
scribed were usually lurid and flamboyant, and to hold him 
at fault for his style of speech and writing would be to con- 
demn well-nigh all who undertook to give expression to their 
thoughts or a narration of their experiences. Third, it should 
be considered that the times in which Smith lived were times 
in which such incidents as he related concerning himself 
were, evidently, exceedingly common. When we may be- 
lieve that Sir John Popham, who afterwards became Chief 
Justice of England, played the part of a highwayman when 
a law student at Middle Temple, earning thus for himself 
means with which to pursue his studies, such encounters as 



46 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Smith relates of himself should not be difficult for us to 
accept. The truth is, as it has been well spoken, "Those who 
do not believe in the accuracy of his relations concerning 
himself refuse to see anything worthy in his deeds. On the 
other hand, those who recognize the value of his deeds, d:> 
not find it difficult to accept his relations as beirjg reliable 
and authentic." 

Jamestown, the place selected for the permanent settle- 1 
ment of the colony, did not prove, as might easily have been 
foreseen, a place at all suitable for the adequate protection 
and health of the colonists. It was a low peninsula, much; 
of which was covered with water at the flood tide, and orjf 
which could be found no pure supply of drinking water, and 
for these two reasons it ought to have been rejected as a ii: 
habitation for the new settlers. The situation and surround* 
ings were as unsanitary as they possibly could be, and welH 
nigh most of the unutterable suffering through which the 
settlers were to pass can be traced to this unfortunate se-, 
lection of a site upon which to build a colony^ Moreover, 
the nearness of the Indians, whom the colonists too soon 
offended and alienated, and the meagre supplies that they 
had brought with them from across the waters, and the 
ignorance and incompetency of the settlers to earn their 
living under these new conditions, ought to have shown 
what would inevitably follow/. Smith, the most capable man 
among the settlers, and the one most likely to rally their 
drooping spirits and to prevent disorganization and confu- 
sion, was at first excluded from the council of seven ap- 
pc inted by King James to rule the colony planted in the wil- 
derness of Virginia. A whim of the King caused him to 
place in a sealed box the names of the first council of Vir- 
ginia. Great was the surprise when the box was opened 
and it was found that John Smith, who had been arrested 



JOHN SMITH, THE HERO OF JAMESTOWN. 47 

miring the voyage on the false charge of mutiny, had been 
designated as one of the members of the council. The other 
six members were Edward Maria Wingfield, Christopher 
Newport, John Ratcliffe, John Martin and George Kendall. 
According to instructions, the council proceeded to the elec- 
tion of a president, and the honor fell to Wingfield, who, 
though a prominent and competent merchant of London, was 
unsuited to govern a colony of adventurers in the planting 
of a new nation. 

Hardly had landing been effected at Jamestown, before 
a search was made to discover the source of the river, with 
the hope possibly of finding a passage to the South Seas. 
Smith, Newport and twenty others were sent up the river, 
and towards the last of May the falls were reached, near 
where Richmond is now located. Here they found an Indian 
town called Powhatan, "consisting of some twelve houses 
pleasantly situated on a hill, before it three fertile isles, about 
it many of their corn fields." This was one of the homes of 
the ruler of the people called the Powhatans, and his desig- 
nation as chief was Powhatan. Not being able to ascend 
the river further on account of the falls and rocks, the ex- 
plorers returned to Jamestown, where they found seventeen 
men hurt and a boy slain by the savages. During these 
days of exploration, Smith had still remained under sus- 
picion. He now demanded that he should be brought to 
trial by jury, according to the rights of an Englishman. He 
was acquitted of the accusation of mutiny, and his chief 
accuser was adjudged to pay him £200 in damages, which 
Smith "returned to the store for the general use of the colony." 

Newport now returned home, leaving in Jamestown one 
hundred settlers, of whom fifty-four were classified as gen- 
tlemen, and the others as carpenters, laborers and servants. 
Newport's departure was followed by a fatal sickness, which 



48 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

was, doubtless, no other than malarial fever, and by Sep- 
tember more than fifty of the colonists were dead. Among 
the victims was Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, who was 
more responsible for this expedition to Virginia than any 
other man. For the interest which he took in American 
colonization he is entitled to rank with Gilbert and Raleigh. 

Wingfield, attempting to flee from the colony, was de- 
posed as president, and Ratcliffe was placed in his stead. 
Soon after this, in order to save the colony from perishing, 
Smith made a trip to Kecoughtan, a town of eighteen Indian 
huts, located about where Hampton now stands. On de- 
manding corn from the Indians, the same was refused, where- 
upon he and his men fired their muskets and ran their boat 
quickly ashore, which so terrified the Indians that they se- 
cured from them great heaps of corn and quantities of veni- 
son and turkeys. 

Ratcliffe proved incompetent to manage the settlement in 
distress, and again Wingfield and Kendall plotted to seize 
the only vessel left of the colonists, whereupon Kendall was 
brought to trial by a jury, convicted, and shot for treason. 
This is the first reported execution in Virginia. 

As winter approached, Smith, to satisfy the complaints 
of the colonists, went up the Chickahominy River, hoping 
to discover a passage to the South Seas or Pacific Ocean, 
He was captured by the Indians and carried to Opechanca- 
nough, who would have put him to immediate death but for 
the fact that his attention was beguiled by Smith into an ex- 
amination of his compass. By means of a grotesque and 
elaborate pantomime, Smith sought to explain that the needle 
always pointed to the North Star. The old chief became 
■hypnotized, so to speak, and spared the life of his captive, 
whom he sent to Werowocomoco, on York River, the home 
of Powhatan, the head of the Powhatan confederacy of In- 




John Smith. 



JOHN SMITH Z THE HERO OF JAMESTOWN. 49 

dians. When Smith was brought into the presence of this 
brawny emperor of the woods, he found him seated in the 
midst of fifty warriors, with his group of wives standing be- 
hind him. The Queen of the Appomattox brought him 
water, and another a bunch of turkey feathers for a towel. 
After this unique ablution he was feasted upon roast turkey 
and venison. Following this token of Indian regard and 
hospitality, a council of war was held, and a decision was 
made that Smith should be put to death. Two stones were 
brought, on which he was made to lay his head, and just as 
a warrior with a huge club was on the point of smashing out 
his brains, an Indian maiden rushed forward, threw herself 
on him and besought of the great chief that the life of the 
prisoner might be spared. Powhatan at last yielded, and 
gave him as a servant to the Indian maiden, by name Matoaka, 
known in the annals of Virginia as Pocahontas, the word 
meaning "a bright stream between two hills." 

In a few days Smith was permitted to return to James- 
town. Here he found everything in confusion and turmoil, 
many of the settlers having already died of sickness, and the 
rest of them at the point of starvation for the want of proper 
nourishment. Shortly after this Newport arrived in Virginia. 
The fear that Smith had created in the Indians was soon 
removed by Newport allowing Powhatan to completely out- 
wit him. The colony was greatly in need of corn, and Smith 
succeeded, for a pound or two of blue beads, in securing two 
or three hundred bushels of corn, but Newport^ for twenty 
swords, got only twenty turkeys. Shortly after this New- 
port returned to England, carrying Wingfield. who never 
again returned to Virginia. The number of settlers who 
came over at this time was one hundred and. twenty, of 
whom thirty-three were classed as gentlemen. 

In the summer of 1608, Smith explored all the region of 



50 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the Chesapeake Bay, going up the York, Rappahannock and 
Potomac Rivers and inlets along the Eastern Shore, and 01 
this region he made a map which was wonderfully accurate, 
considering the conditions under which he explored the re- 
gion. On returning to Jamestown after his explorations of 
the Chesapeake and its tributaries, Smith finally consented to 
take the office of president, Ratcliffe being deposed by the 
colonists themselves. 

About this time Newport returned to the colony bring- 
ing new settlers, and along with them Mrs. Forrest and her 
maid, Anne Burras, the first English women to come to Vir- 
ginia. Soon after this Anne Burras was married to John 
Laydon, the first English marriage in Virginia. We are 
told that the first child born of this marriage was called Vir- 
ginia, and that in 1632, when twenty-one years of age, she 
was presented with a land grant of 500 acres of land in Eliza- 
beth City county. 

Smith, as president, addressed himself most seriously to 
the important task to which he had been called in the very 
crisis in the life of. the colony. He put the settlers to work to 
build substantial houses. The fort was repaired, every man 
being required to perform a certain number of hours' service 
every day. During the winter of i6o8-'oo. he secured from 
tlie Indians food necessary to keep the colony from perishing. 
During this period Pocahontas was his constant friend. On 
one occasion he visited the Pamunkey tribe, and, finding 
that Opechancanough was planning to have him and his 
companions seized and murdered, he suddenly caught the old 
chief by his forelock, and with a cocked pistol led him into 
the midst of his own people. This so dismayed the Indians 
that they at once yielded to Smith's authority, and very little 
trouble was experienced with the Indians during the rest of 
Smith's sojourn in Virginia. 



JOHN SMITH, THE HERO OF JAMESTOWN. 51 

During the year 1609 a number of settlers arrived, and by 
the middle of the year there were near unto five hundred 
souls in the colony. These were distributed among several 
small settlements. An important settlement of about one 
hundred and twenty men was made near the falls, in that 
poition of Richmond commonly called "Rocketts." In a little 
while these settlers were in dispute with the Indians. The 
latter claimed that their corn was stolen by the white set- 
tlers and that they were forced to work. They reported fur- 
ther that some of their men were arrested and others were 
flogged. To settle these difficulties Smith went to the falls, 
arranged terms with the Indians, and bought another site 
for the plantation, which was on high ground and not sub- 
ject to inundation from the river. Scarcely had these mat- 
ters been arranged, however, before Captain West, who 
planted the settlement, appeared upon the scene and per- 
suaded the settlers to go back to their first location. Smith 
left the place in deep disgust. On his way down the river 
he was severely wounded by an explosion of a bag of gun- 
powder. The pain was so intense that he threw himself 
overboard, but he was rescued from drowning by some of 
his companions. They finally reached Jamestown. A ves- 
sel arriving from London at this time, Smith determined to 
return to England for medical treatment. Surrendering the 
government into the hands of George Percy, the brother of 
the Earl of Northumberland, Smith sailed away. It was a 
day of misfortune to the colony, for hardly had "Jje gone be- 
fore dissension and strife arose, and Percy did not prove 
strong enough for the emergency. 

There have been in recent years some earnest attempts at 
impeachment of the stories of Smith concerning his relations 
and experiences with the Indians. Especially has the story of 
his rescue by Pocahontas been held in grave suspicion. Per- 



52 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

baps the ablest contention from this point of view was waged 
by Dr. Alexander Brown, of Virginia, whose recent death is 
greatly to be deplored, and whose splendid contribution to 
the history of Virginia cannot be praised too highly. It does 
not seem, however, to us that the contention has been made 
out clearly and completely. The ground of the contention 
seems to be this : 

In Smith's first account of his career in Virginia no allu- 
sion whatever was made to the Pocahontas episode, and only 
when Pocahontas was coming to London and about to be 
received with great attention and applause did it occur to 
him to relate this story in a letter to the King, giving his 
rescue by Pocahontas as the ground of his appeal for kindly 
attention on the King's part toward her. It does not seem 
to us that this necessarily proves the inaccuracy of Smith as 
a historian. It can be shown that there were reasons why 
this story did not appear in Smith's first and briefer relation. 
It is understood on all hands that his first relation was edite 1 
and some parts of it eliminated. There is a well-known rea- 
son why Smith should not have told this incident in this re- 
lation, and why, if he should have done so, it would have 
been eliminated before being given to the public. Among the 
instructions given to the colonists, they were warned not to 
send back in any letters or communications any discouraging 
or distressing news, and especially must they withhold expe- 
riences with the Indians that would indicate harsh relations 
between the settlers and the aborigines. Furthermore, it 
ought to be remembered that at the time when this story 
was first related Pocahontas herself was in England, and 
must have known of the publicity given to this statement. 
It is difficult to believe that if it had been untrue she would 
have permitted it to pass without some explanation and de- 
nial. Smith, it must not be forgotten, had many enemies 



JOHN SMITH, THE HERO OF JAMESTOWN. 53 

still alive who must have been acquainted with the leading 
facts of his career at Jamestown, and if it had not been ac- 
cepted among these settlers as a story known to them before 
its public relation, it cannot be doubted but that they would 
have been only too glad to have made prompt and public 
denial of it. Besides, the story is congruous both with the 
customs of the Indian people and with the conduct of the 
Indians ever afterward, especially the conduct of the maiden 
Pocahontas. There must have been some reason for her 
friendly relation with the settlers, and for the amicable rela- 
tions sustained for some time between the Indians and the 
settlers. This episode seems to be an adequate explanation 
for these things, or, at least, it perfectly comports with them. 
In view of these considerations, thus hastily given, we are 
unwilling to give up this beautiful incident as being a figment 
of Smith's imagination and a creature of his arrogant conceit. 
It seems to us that the whole trouble with reference to the 
suspicion under which Smith has been held grows out of the 
psychological difficulty of reconciling the paradoxes of his 
character. It is hard to give credit of sincerity and veracity 
to a man who carries himself in such a blustering and per- 
sistently self-conscious way, and if the performances of Smith 
end the services rendered on behalf of the colony had not been 
very real and substantial, it might be easy to accept this view 
of the case. When you have made all the discount possibly 
to be allowed by the palpable and flagrant fault of the man's 
speech, manner and character, there is still a noble residue 
that must be taken into account. He was alert and quickly 
responsive to situations that changed with kaleidoscopic 
swiftness and variety. He was courageous and resourceful 
in war. He was sagacious and diplomatic in dealings outside 
of the immediate settlement, both with the Indians and with 
the London Company in its incessant and sometimes unrea- 



54 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

sonable scrutiny and requirements. He was magnanimous 
to his foes. He was always as kind and patient in his treat- 
ment of the aborigines as their own savage ignorance and the 
safety of the colonists would permit him to be. Though he 
was boastful of speech and aggressive, if not arrogant, in his 
manner, he was brave and magnanimous, courageous and hon- 
est, gentle and just, unselfish and patriotic ; and however these 
may conflict with other contradictory qualities, there cannot 
be any doubt but that these were the warp and the woof of his 
character, and by virtue of these we deem him justly entitled 
to be called the hero of Jamestown. 

Smith left Virginia in 1609, never to return to the colony. 
After recovering from his wounds he was commissioned to 
explore the coast of New England. To this region he gave 
many of the names which are now in common use. The 
Plymouth Company conferred upon him the title of Admiral 
of New England. While in Virginia he wrote a pamphlet 
entitled "The True Relation of Virginia," and after his return 
to England he compiled a history which is known as "Smith's 
General History," published in 1626. He also wrote other de- 
scriptions of Virginia and of New England. As a writer 
Smith is most pleasing and humorous. He died in London in 
163 1, and was buried in St. Sepulchre's Church, Skinners 
Street, London. A tablet was erected to his memory and 
inscribed with the motto, "Vincere est Vivere," and with a 
long epitaph in poetry, the first four lines of which are here 
given : 

"Here lies unconquered that has conquered kings, 
Subdued large territories and done things 
Which to the world impossible would seem, 
But that the truth is held in more esteem.'' 

Strangely enough, no monument has been erected to the 
memory of John Smith. It must, therefore, be a matter of 



JOHN SMITH, THE HERO OF JAMESTOWN. 55 

great satisfaction to all familiar with the valorous deeds of 
this hero of Jamestown to know that through the perse- 
verance of the Society for the Preservation cf Virginia 
Antiquities, a monument will be erected on Jamestown Island 
in 1907 as a tribute to Smith and his distinguished services 
to the Virginia Colony. 



CHAPTER V. 
THE LAND OF POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE. 

When the first settlers came up the James River and 
moored their ships at the shores of Jamestown, it was spring- 
time in Virginia. Her sons know what that means. How 
swiftly things that have been away come back; or asleep, be- 
come alive and astir; or dead, break and bloom into life at the 
first kiss of the vernal sun and the call of the south wind. 
But such a spring as greeted the weary voyagers of the God- 
speed, of the Susan Constant and of the Discovery has never 
been since seen on land or sea. Above them skies blue and 
sun as genial as Italy's. The forest trees were leafed, and 
as far as the eye could see there was wave upon wave of shim- 
mering green ; here and there the gleaming pink and white 
of the blossom of the crab-apple and wild cherry and dogwood. 
Under their feet sprang up the grass, tender with the first 
touch of spring, and a thousand yellow and blue and red 
things, sweet and fragrant. Everywhere was the pulsing and 
throbbing springtime felt, filling all the forests with vibrant 
and gladsome life, and all the air with perfume. 

After three months of cloud and storm and the narrow 
confinement and coarse diet of their long voyage, how it all 
must have seemed, as the settlers themselves declared it to 
be, "the very paradise of God into -which they had come." 
The old Eden by the Euphrates sprang up again in a distant 
land by a river bearing the strange name of Powhatan. How 
rdevant to all the life without and to all the thought within 

56 



LAND OF POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE. 57 

must have been those first religious exercises in which they 
engaged in the new land ' A board stretched between two 
forest trees was the altar upon which the Holy Bible and 
Prayer Book were reverently laid, and from which their rec- 
tor, the Reverend Mr. Hunt, read the solemn and noble sen- 
vice of the Church of old England. The singing of the birds, 
mate calling to mate in the mysterious honeymoon of the 
early springtime; the rustling of the leaves of the forests, 
moved upon by the south wind; the rippling of the passing 
river, singing its way toward the sea, united with the song 
and psalm of the devout worshipers, and must have risen up 
to the God of nations as grateful as incense from graven 
altars, and as sweet as the rising fragrance of bud and blossom 
in the valleys beneath. 

Smith, writing back, said "that heaven and earth never 
agreed better to form a place for man's habitation." A much 
traveled member of the London Company declared, "I have 
traveled by land over eighteen several kingdoms, and yet all 
of them, in my mind, come far short to Virginia." Mr. Wil- 
liams, in some historical tracts afterward issued, wrote: "For 
exactness of temperature, goodness of soil, variety of staples, 
and capability of receiving whatever else is produced in any 
part of the globe, Virginia gives the right hand of pre-emi- 
nence to no province under heaven." Mr. Bruce, in his superb 
"Economic History of Virginia," following perhaps Mr. Bev- 
erly, said that there were three sorts of soil easily recognized 
in Virginia. The soil near the mouth of the rivers, moist and 
fertile, was adapted to the growth o.f rice, hemp, tobacco and 
corn. The low grounds were in general covered with forests 
of pine, poplar, cypress, sweet-gum, holly, cedar and live-oak. 
Then there was the soil found on the banks of the upper sec- 
tions of the rivers and throughout the adjacent country. It 
was quite frequently a rich, black mold, but loose and light 
and thin. In this soil the walnut, birch and ash grew to be 



58 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

of remarkable size. The soil around the headwaters of the 
various rivers was of another sort, and varied greatly in fer- 
tility. Some was rich and heavily timbered; upon another 
grew vast meadows and savannas of tall reed and grass ; an- 
other still was made up of acres of bog and swamps, filled 
with great trees growing so closely together that their 
branches interlocked. Almost the entire face of the country, 
when the Virginia settlers came, was covered by primeval 
forests. Here and there along the banks of the streams could 
be seen cleared patches of ground where the Indian villages 
were built, and where they cultivated their corn and vege- 
tables. Freedom from undergrowth was one of the first char- 
acteristics of the forests that impressed the settlers. It is 
said that it was easy to drive a team through the forests and 
not at all difficult to form a line of battle under the great 
trees. The first seen by the settlers of 1607 were the pine 
trees that kept sentinel along the shores of the seas of Vir- 
ginia. It is said that approaching vessels could detect, many 
miles out at sea, the pungent and fragrant odor of the pine. 
These pine trees, rising from the lowlands by the sea, at a 
distance appeared to spring up out of the sea, lifting their 
heads even unto the skies. They grew to be tremendous, 
both in girth and in length. The finest specimen of the pine 
tree in Virginia at that time grew on the shores where Hamp- 
ton Roads now is. It was found by the Virginia settlers that 
they had no ships that could carry away the logs of these 
great pine trees unless they were trimmed and cut down as 
to length. 

The oak tree likewise grew to be very large, planks from 
which were made having twenty yards in length and two and 
a half feet square. , 

Of fruit trees there were not very many. The crab-apple, 
wild cherry, persimmon and the plum constituted the assort- 
ment of fruit trees native to the Virginian soil. The goose- 



LAND OF POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE. 59 

berry, raspberry and cranberry greatly flourished. The wild 
strawberry grew in prodigal abundance, and greatly pleased 
the settlers with its size and fine flavor. 

In the fields were to be found the wild onion, growing 
to be "as large as the thumb" ; the squash, pumpkin and musk- 
melon greatly flourished ; but the watermelon, for which Vir- 
ginia has since become famous, was not indigenous, but was 
afterwards imported. 

Of the flowers the first settlers make no special mention, 
only pf the wild rose and violet; but at the time of their 
landing hundreds of other flowers, some known and some un- 
known to them, were in bloom. A species of laurel grew 
and blossomed through the several months, rich in coloring 
and very fragrant. The locust tree abounded with flowers 
something like the jessamine. The dog-wood, blooming in 
the early spring, was in full glory at the time of the first set- 
tlement. The myrtle trees, whose bark yielded a gum thought 
to have healing qualities, and whose branches blossomed lux- 
uriantly in pink and white, could be found in all parts of Tide- 
water Virginia. 

A notable feature of the new country was the number of 
streams. This must have been especially grateful to the voy- 
agers after their three months on shipboard. Many of these 
streams were large and navigable for many miles inward. 
Into the larger streams from right and left came tributaries, 
many of which were themselves navigable. All of these 
streams, whether large or great, ran perfectly clear. This is 
a strange statement to the Virginian of the present day. Now 
that the forests have been cut away, and the contiguous 
fields put under cultivation, many of these streams for most 
of the year run red and muddy instead of clear and pure. 

The fields and forests abounded in all sorts of game, be- 
coming more plentiful as one went into the interior farther 
from the hunting grounds of the Indians. In the early spring 



60 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

and fall the country was filled with feathered game. The 
swan, wild goose, duck in numerous varieties, but worthy of 
especial mention the canvas-back and red-head; plover, snipe, 
woodcock and sora all abounded. The turkey seems most 
to have impressed the early settlers, and was found every- 
where in great quantities. The eagle — black, gray and bald — 
was numerous. Likewise the owl and crow, the latter after- 
ward to become increasingly numerous and troublesome to 
the colonists. 

This description, all too meagre, is only a bare suggestion 
of the marvelous land into which the first Virginia settlers 
came and built their homes. 

The history of the aboriginal inhabitants of this new land 
is of a very uncertain and unreliable sort. It is exceedingly 
difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff in the stories 
of the first explorers. It is not that they were mistaken some- 
times, but that they evidently and frequently made statements 
that were exaggerations. Besides, the Indians were most 
crafty and deceitful, and were most reluctant to furnish in- 
formation unless they saw a chance to reap some advantage. 
These facts, put together, make it exceedingly doubtful 
whether any really accurate and satisfactory history can be 
given of the very early Virginia Indian. It was scarcely to 
be expected of these first adventurers, on account of the in- 
herent difficulties in circumstances surrounding them, to make 
a very full or accurate relation of what they had seen or of 
the experiences through which they had passed. Not always 
could they understand the Indian when he really meant to 
tell the truth, and not often could they really discover when 
he was telling the truth. The things they saw and heard 
were so utterly new and strange, that it was exceedingly dif- 
ficult for them to understand or to be able to accurately de- 
scribe them to others. 



LAND OF POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE. 61 

At the time of the coming of the first settlers there were 
three tribes of Indians living between the James and Potomac 
Rivers, and these were the Indians with whom the early set- 
tlers first came in contact : The Mannahoac Indians, living at 
the headwaters of the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers; 
the Monocan Indians, occupying the territory on the banks 
of the upper James River, and the Powhatans, possessing 
practically all of the portion of the country now known as 
Tidewater Virginia. These were the tribes with which the 
settlers had most to do and from whom they had most trou- 
ble; and yet, indeed, from whom they had indispensable suc- 
cor in dire distress. 

The Powhatan confederacy was composed of thirty tribes 
and about twenty-four hundred warriors, which would mean 
a population of about ten thousand. The largest of these 
tribes was the Pamunkey, having about one thousand popula- 
tion. The Powhatan at the head of this confederacy was of 
the Pamunkey tribe. 

The head of the allied tribes in Virginia was known as 
Powhatan. He occupied the relation of King or Emperor 
over the subordinated confederacies. He had three official 
residences. The first one was on the north side of the York 
River, about three miles from the present Yorktown, and was 
called Werowocomoco. The next capital residence was at 
Orapakes, on the Chickahominy River, near Powhatan, and 
the third place was at Powhatan, near the present site of the 
city of Richmond. 

Powhatan, at the time of the coming of the English set- 
tlers at Jamestown, is described by Strachy, who evidently 
had his information from Smith, as follows: 

"A goodly old man, not yet shrinking, though well beaten 
with many strong and cold winters, supposed to be little less 
than eighty years old, with gray hairs but plain and thin upon 



62 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

his broad shoulders ; some few hairs upon his chin and upper 
lip. He hath been a strong and able savage, sinewy, and of a 
daring spirit ; vigilant and ambitious, subtle to enlarge his do- 
minions." 

In Powhatan was centred all governmental power. The 
legislative, judicial and executive branches of government 
seemed all to have been lodged in him. He associated with 
himself a considerable pomp and parade of office and power, 
had a royal retinue as bodyguard, composed of sixty or sev- 
enty of the most stalwart and fearless Indian warriors. He 
exercised undisputed authority over all the allied tribes. His 
subjects planted all his corn and gathered it for him when 
it was ripe. His treasure house was located at Orapakes. It 
is said to have been fifty or sixty feet long, and was the 
storehouse, not only of his corn, but of his other valuable 
possessions, such as skins, copper, paint, beads and arms of 
all kinds. He had to himself the responsibility of many 
wives. Strachy said "he had a multiplicity of women." Most 
of these he left at home whenever he took excursions, but al- 
ways carried with him two or more wherever he went. Mr. 
Strachy is the authority for the statement that he had twenty 
sons and twelve daughters, one of whom was the Princess 
Pocahontas. When for any reason he became tired of a wife, 
he gave her away to some of his friends as a token of his 
royal favor. 

The empire over which he ruled was made up of many 
subdivisions. Each town or village constituted one of these 
divisions. 

Powhatan, in his dealings with the early settlers, showed 
himself to be wonderfully shrewd and wise. Had he dealt 
with one less shrewd than Smith, and having less experience 
in adventure, the colonists would have doubtless suffered 
many more and worse things at the hands of the Indians. 



LAND OF POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE. 63 

He constantly held the settlers under suspicion, and seemed 
to fear the most when they came bearing gifts. It was evi- 
dent that he had little relish for the coronation ceremonies 
that were inflicted upon him, and that he accepted the gifts 
sent by the King of England with some apprehension, be- 
lieving that in some way or other he would be obliged to give 
an account for them. One does not know whether it was in 
a sense of savage humor or of contempt that he gathered up 
his cast-off garments and presented them to the commission 
that had in charge the ceremonies and coronation. It may be 
that the shrewd Indian in that way sought to indicate his 
supreme contempt for the whole proceedings. 

The tribes over which he ruled were made up of subdi- 
visions, and were so distributed as that a town or village 
constituted one of these divisions. 

These towns were independent of each other, but were 
all under one Emperor and governed by him or his appointees. 
In each village were a sachem, a tribal council and a priest. 

The sachem was a member of the King's council, and 
was looked to for advice and direction in all civil and do- 
mestic matters. He had absolute power of life and death, 
and his word was ordinarily considered final. The wero- 
wance was the war leader, and was the chief in all hunting 
expeditions. In time of war he was supreme in authority. 
He was appointed by the Emperor, while the sachem was 
elected by the people. 

The tribal council, chosen by the people, had the author- 
ity of counsel and advice in every town. There was a gen- 
eral council which met at Werowocomoco. Over its delib- 
erations the Emperor himself presided, and was always treated 
with profound respect. The general council was made up 
of representatives from the various tribal towns. 

The priests had authority in all religious and spiritual 



64 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

matters. They were held in high esteem, and were consulted 
in regard to all important undertakings. 

It can be seen from these statements that there was con- 
siderable coherence in the government among the Indians. 
The resemblance to English forms of governmental life sug- 
gests that, after all, the historians might have read their own 
ideas into such observation and into such information as 
might have come to them with the limited means of finding 
information at their command. It is a little difficult to im- 
agine such advanced ideas of government among a people 
so savage and so isolated as were these aborigines. 

Among them land was held in common, each inhabitant 
having equal rights in all hunting privileges. Private pro- 
perty, dwellings and gardens were respected by all. The vil- 
lages were usually built upon high places, contiguous to 
streams of water. They were composed of twenty-five or 
thirty houses, which were built of saplings, planted at regular 
distances like posts, and then bent over and tied together in 
the middle. The house was built up by skilful application 
and use of barks and grasses adroitly interwoven. The roof 
came down well over the structure. Sometimes there were 
windows, but usually there was only one opening. The fire 
for heating was built in the middle of the house on the floor, 
and usually there was an opening at some proper place in the 
roof for the escape of the smoke. The beds were arranged 
around the fire and were usually elevated a few feet above 
the ground, or were made up of pallets of furs and skins 
stretched upon the floor. Several families usually occupied 
one of these dwellings. The shape of the houses was either 
oblong or circular. The circular form was much smaller and 
was not so generally used. Each dwelling place had its own 
plot of ground for the cultivation of corn and vegetables. 
Certain trees were planted and cultivated. The mulberry 



LAND OF POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE. 65 

tree, for some reason, was especially popular, and the loca- 
tion of many of these Indian villages could be traced many 
years afterward by the presence and growth of these mul- 
berry trees. The sunflower was also a favorite, and in all 
their gardens it could be seen growing in luxuriance. 

The products of the field were, in the main, corn, beans 
and squashes or pumpkins. These ordinarily were all grown 
as they are now, in the same fields. The corn was planted at 
intervals as the season wore on, so as to have many crops of 
the roasting ear, of which the Indians were very fond. At 
the harvest season the corn was gathered, and when perfectly 
dried and seasoned, was shelled and stored away in huge 
baskets for the winter's use. This was used in the form of 
hominy. 

Captain John Smith said, "There is yet no place in Vir- 
ginia discovered to be so savage in which they have not a re- 
ligion." Every Indian village had a temple and attending 
priests. The temples were usually capacious. They were 
entered always from the east. At the western end of the 
building there was a rude sort of chancel or altar "with hol- 
low windings and pillars, and around stood divers black im- 
ages fashioned to the shoulders, with their faces looking down 
the church." These temples were cared for by the priests, 
who practiced in them at certain times ritualistic services. 
They believed in the existence pf a Supreme Being who was 
wise and bountiful and benevolent. They usually believed 
in another supreme being who represented the evil principle, 
and whom they held responsible for all the evil and sorrow of 
their lives. 

The Supreme Being who represented the good principle 
they believed to be kindly and mercifully disposed, and if un- 
hindered, he would fill their lives with joy and blessings. So 
assured were they in this belief of his perpetual goodness 



66 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

that they thought it unnecessary to render unto him any spe- 
cial form of worship. 

On the other hand, they believed that the being repre- 
senting the evil principle was constantly bent upon their 
suffering and unhappiness. With this belief they conceived 
the idea that if this supreme being could be appeased they 
would be saved from misery and unhappiness. They there- 
fore concluded, in their rude logic, that it was better to wor- 
ship the evil principle rather than the good principle, because 
the evil principle might be placated and bought off. So their 
offerings and gifts were all paid to the being representing 
the evil principle of life. 

They celebrated, under the leadership of their priests, 
two annual feasts. One of them was at the time of the gath- 
ering in of the corn, and must have corresponded in some 
ways to our annual Thanksgiving services. It was observed 
as a day of feasting and rejoicing. The other feast seems 
to have corresponded somewhat with our New Year's festivi- 
ties. The exercises began with fasting on the part of all the 
members of the tribe. The old fires that had been carefully 
cherished throughout the year were extinguished and new 
fires kindled. Every member of the tribe was required to take 
an emetic, after which life was begun over again. All crimi- 
nals, except murderers, were on that day pardoned, and after 
having taken, along with the rest, an emetic, they were re- 
stored fully to their old places and standing in the tribe. 

They had a very decided belief in another form of exist- 
ence. They seemed to have believed in what Christian peo- 
ple are used to calling heaven and hell. Into the heaven went 
all the good and faithful and brave ; into hell were driven the 
wicked and unfaithful. In connection with this belief in a 
future life they had a sort of vague faith in the transmigra- 
tion of souls, and seem to have believed that after a certain 



LAND OF POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE. 67 

stay in the evil place, some were permitted to come back into 
life and begin the slow process of transmigration which should 
issue into a better and truer life. 

It will be interesting, perhaps, to know that there still 
lingers in Virginia a small tribe of Indians known as the Pa- 
munkey Indians. They claim to be the lineal descendants of 
the Powhatan tribe. 

We are indebted to Mr. John Garland Pollard for very 
definite information concerning this tribe of Indians. They 
live in a town on the Richmond and West Point Railway, 
known as Indian Town, about twenty-one miles east of Rich- 
mond. They live upon a tract of land containing about eight 
hundred acres, of which there are two hundred and fifty 
arable acres. This tract was conceded by an act of the Colon- 
ial Assembly, and it is never to be alienated from their pos- 
session. 

In 1893 Mr. Pollard went to this Indian village and took 
a census of the Pamunkey tribe. He reported that there were 
present on the reservation ninety Indians all told ; twenty 
others were accounted for as being in service in Richmond or 
as being employed on the steamships plying the Virginia 
streams during the summer. So that, all told, there were in 
1893 one hundred and ten Pamunkey Indians. 

These Indians are not by any means thoroughbred. Their 
blood has become much tainted, especially with negro blood. 
The estimate of its purity runs all the way from one-fifth to 
four-fifths. In recent years, however, they have a very string- 
ent rule that there must be no intermarrying with the negroes. 
The penalty for a violation of this rule is expulsion from all 
the rights and privileges of the tribe. 

They live under a pure democracy, being governed by a 
chief chosen by the people, and by a council of four men as- 
sociated with him. Their manner of election is curious and 



6S COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

interesting. Two names are nominated by the council for 
presidential chief, one known as Number One, and the other 
known as Number Two. Whoever wishes to vote for Num- 
ber One deposits in a receptacle placed at a central point a 
grain of corn; and whoever votes for Number Two deposits 
a bean. They enforce their laws rigidly, although penalties 
for violations of law do not seem to be very great, consisting 
mainly in fines and expulsion or denial of the rights and privi- 
leges of the tribe. All capital offenses are tried in the neigh- 
boring court of King William county. 

The lands are held in common, but there is allotted to 
each head of the family eight acres of ground. This land or- 
dinarily remains in one family through generations, and is 
only transferred when there are no heirs laying claim to it. 
L'pon these eight acres they build their house, usually a story 
and a half 'high. They live or subsist in a very primitive 
fashion, depending upon the streams and woods for their sup- 
port. Deer is sometimes to be had on their reservation. They 
deal considerably in furs of small wild animals. The streams 
abound in all the fish known to the Virginia waters. They 
capture each year large numbers of ducks and other birds, 
especially the famous and toothsome sora. Their manner 
of killing the sora is interesting and peculiar. Nowadays they 
have a basket of iron resembling very much the ordinary 
peach basket. In it is put the pine kindling wood, which is 
ignited and set in the marshes or in front of their canoes. 
The birds are attracted to the fire in vast numbers, and are 
beaten down by flails in the hands of the Indians. They 
originally had as a receptacle for the fire what they called a 
sora horse. It was made of clay, and was hardened much as 
china is. One of these sora horses was found by Mr. Pollard 
and put on exhibition at the Chicago Exposition, and is now 
at the Smithsonian Institue at Washington. 



'LAND'- OF POWHATAN AND HIS PEOPLE. 69 

They pay no tribute to the State, except that it has be- 
come a custom to furnish to the Executive Mansion at Rich- 
mond gifts of game and fish each year in varying quantities. 

The percentage of illiteracy among them is very small. 
Most of them know how to read and write. The State main- 
tains a free school on the reservation. Some years ago a 
negro was sent as teacher at the school, but they promptly 
dismissed this negro, so greatly had they become interested 
in the maintaining of their race pride. When one thinks of 
the admixture of their blood with the negro, one is bound to 
think that here is a case of where "the stable is locked after 
the horse is gone." 

They are a very religiously inclined people. They have 
on their reservation a church which they attend with great 
unction and regularity. The membership of the church takes 
in nearly the entire tribe. They are of the Baptist faith, and 
maintain pleasant and fraternal relations with that body in the 
State. 

These seem to be the sole remnants of the tribes brought 
into contact, and, alas ! too often into conflict, with the early 
settlers of Virginia. They are the residue of a brave and 
simple people that fell before the ruthless march of civiliza- 
tion. 



CHAPTER VI. 
POCAHONTAS, THE HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. 

If John Smith, in the story of the Jamestown settlement, 
is the hero, Pocahontas, the daughter of Powhatan, is en- 
titled to be called the heroine. In the study of the life of 
Captain Smith, we have already been introduced to the wilder- 
ness princess. So far as history reports, the English at James- 
town did not know of this Indian maiden until she rescued 
the life of John Smith in the winter of i6o7-'o8. She was then 
a mere child of some eleven or twelve years. Her regard for 
Smith and her generous spirit were the means of establishing 
amicable relations between her people and the little band of 
Englishmen. 

We next hear of Pocahontas, in this same winter of trial, 
leading, at frequent intervals, a trail of Indians into the colony 
bearing supplies for the starving people. The weather being 
exceedingly cold, such excursions must have been attended 
with great discomfort, it not absolute suffering, to this child 
of the forests. Marion Harland describes this princess of the 
wilderness, leading her savage followers into the English set- 
tlement, as "a little girl wrapped in a robe of doeskin, lined 
and edged with pigeon down," with "a white heron's feather 
in her black hair," indicating her rank as a King's daughter. 
Her visits must have been very frequent, for it is said, "Ever 
once in four days this wild train visited the settlement until 
the peril of famine was passed." It is evident that the Indian 
maiden was very much at home among the English settlers. 

70 



POCAHONTAS— HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. 71 

Mr. Strachey tells that ; 'the before remembered Pocahontas, 
Powhatan's /daughter, continues resorting to our fort. Of 
the age then of eleven or twelve years, would get the boys 
forth with her into the market places and make them wheel, 
falling on their hands and turning their heels upward, whom 
she would follow and wheel so herself all the fort over." This 
exploit seems to give some ground for the interpretation that 
is sometimes given to the name of Pocahontas. It is said 
that on account of these boyish pranks her father called her 
Pocahontas, which means "tQtn-boy." It is generally be- 
lieved, however, that the word means "bright stream between 
two hills." 

We next hear of Pocahontas in the summer of 1608, at 
which time she visited Jamestown to beg for the release of 
some Indians who were detained in prison. Her request was 
granted, and Smith sent her away with presents. 

A few months later we again hear of Pocahontas at the 
time Smith had gone amongst her father's people to announce, 
that the King of England had sent to Powhatan, in token 
of his high regard, certain presents, and desired that Powhatan 
come to Jamestown to receive these presents and to submit 
to the ceremonies of coronation. On Smith's arrival at Wero- 
wocomoco, Powhatan was absent, and while Smith waited 
for the return of the aged chief, he and his companions were 
entertained by Pocahontas and her maidens. Smith and his 
companions were seated in an open field before a fire when 
they heard a great noise and shrieking. They seized their 
arms, thinking that Powhatan had treacherously planned to 
surprise them ; but presently Pocahontas came and assured 
Smith that no harm was meant, and that she would suffer 
death herself before any hurt should befall him. Then came 
thirty young women from the woods, their bodies painted 
with many colors, but each one in a different fashion. Poca- 



72 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

hontas, their leader, had a pair of buck's horns on her head, 
an otter's skin at her girdle, and a bow and arrow in her hand. 
The Indian maidens rushed from the woods with great shouts, 
and forming a ring they executed a peculiar wild dance around 
Smith and his companions. 

The next day Powhatan arrived. He received the mes- 
sage from Newport, after which, drawing himself up like a 
great monarch, he said : "If your King has sent me presents, 
I also am a King, and this is my land. Eight days I will stay 
to receive them. Your father is to come to me, not I to him." 
Thus Powhatan refused to go to Jamestown to be crowned, 
and Captain Newport therefore came to Powhatan's home on 
York River with the presents from King James. After much 
persuasion old Powhatan put on the scarlet robe, but when 
he was ordered to kneel to receive the crown, he positively 
refused to bend his knee. "At last, by leaning hard on his 
shoulders, he a little stooped, and Newport put the crown on 
his head." The English then fired a salute in honor of Pow- 
hatan, the King, who started up with great fear until he saw 
that no harm was meant. 

In the winter of 1608 the colony was in great distress from 
lack of provisions. Powhatan knew of its condition and in- 
vited Smith to make him a visit at Werowocomoco, with the 
request that Smith should build him a house, give him a 
grindstone, fifty swords, some firearms, a hen and rooster, 
and much beads and copper. In return for these Powhatan 
promised large supplies cf corn. Smith was only too glad to 
accept the invitation, for he had come to believe that the old 
chief had made up his mind to starve the colony by withhold- 
ing all supplies of corn and refusing all efforts at any trade 
for the same. Already he had determined upon extreme and 
desperate measures, nothing less than the capture of Pow- 
hatan himself and the holding of him as a ransom for food. 



POCAHONTAS— HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. ?$ 

It seems that Powhatan had been doing- some thinking- and 
planning himself. He had about come to the conclusion that 
unless something was done to the Englishmen they would 
eventually drive him and his people further inward, and he in 
turn was planning to capture Smith ; hence his very gracious 
good cheer to the storm-bound group far away from the bless- 
ings of their English homes. Yet even at such a time, and 
upon in the effort to entertain his brave followers and to bring 
invitation. 

The weather was exceedingly cold, and Smith and his 
party made slow headway in sailing. On account of stormy 
weather, they were compelled to stop at the village of Ke- 
coughtan and to spend a week. It was Christmas time. Here 
they were feasted on oysters, venison and wild fowl. We 
are told, also, that Smith and two of his companions amused 
themselves by hunting, and killed one hundred and forty- 
eight wild fowl in three shots. One can imagine how these 
Englishmen on Christmas eve gathered close around the fire 
in one of the rude Indian huts, and how their thoughts must 
have crossed over the seas to their old homes and firesides in 
England. Men less brave and determined, under such a spell, 
would have quailed before the dangers and uncertainties of 
the journey upon which they had come. The marvelous re- 
source of their brave captain must have been mightily drawn 
under such unpropitious circumstances, the brave, good nature 
of the sturdy Englishman undoubtedly asserted itself, and 
before the evening was far spent many a shout of laughter 
might have been heard by any eavesdropping Indian. One 
wonders if the Christmas-tide softened in any way their feel- 
ing towards the Indians, and if, yielding to its gracious spell, 
they took up their journey less intent upon doing violent harm 
or hurt because of the lonely Christmas eve they had spent 
together around the fire in the rude cabin planted in the 
midst of an untamed wilderness. 



74 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

After the week had expired they took up their journey, 
and finally reached Werowocomoco on the 12th of January. 
The ice covered the York River from shore to shore, leaving 
pnly the narrowest channel in the middle of the river. After 
coming ashore through the frozen marshlands, the English- 
men found shelter for themselves in the nearest cabins. Smith 
sent a message to Powhatan announcing that he was in the 
neighborhood, and asking that he furnish them with provis- 
ions. The chief answered in his usual generous way, sending 
great quantities of bread, venison and turkeys. The next day 
he perpetrated a piece of grim sarcasm by sending a very 
polite request to know when they were going to move on. 
He added that, if they had come for corn they would be dis- 
appointed, because he himself had no corn and that his peo- 
ple had less than he had , but if they wanted corn very much, 
he might be able to get them a little in exchange for swords. 
Smith complained that this treatment was unjust, as he had 
come by invitation. Powhatan treated the matter as though 
it was a great joke, and asked the Englishmen to proceed to 
show their goods, insisting, however, that he had no corn to 
exchange except for swords and guns. Smith gave him to 
understand, as plainly as possible, that any exchange of swords 
or guns was absolutely impossible, and then followed a long 
and skilful parley. Greek met Greek; it was give and take 
through the livelong dav between two smart masters of diplo- 
macy, each looking for the opportunity to have the other in 
his power. Smith requested that the savages break the ice 
fiom the river bank so that his boat might come to the shore 
and take himself and the corn aboard. He was not feeling 
altogether comfortable with the bulk of his men so far re- 
moved from him, and he thought that if these men could be 
brought ashore he might be able to surprise the old chief. 
While they were waiting for the Indians to break away the 



POCAHONTAS— HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. 75 

ice, Smith was beguiling the old chief with a most engaging 
and moving address, protesting his great devotion to the chief, 
whom he called, with great unction, "Father" ; but Powhatan 
was somewhat of an orator himself, and knew quite as well 
as Smith how to employ smooth and soothing terms of en- 
dearment, exchanging every time a Roland for Smith's Oli- 
ver. It was soon discovered that Powhatan was not to be 
easily fooled. He succeeded finally in breaking away from 
Captain Smith's bewitching eloquence and fled unceremoni- 
ously with his women and children. It looked as though it 
was with this desperate effort that he shook off the witchery 
into which Smith was slowly hypnotizing him. To avoid any 
suspicion, he took the precaution of leaving behind him two 
or three women who were to engage Smith, holding his at- 
tention while the Powhatan warriors surrounded the cabin in 
v/hich they were. Smith, to avoid capture, rushed from the 
cabin and fired his pistol. The savages tumbled over each 
other* in their haste to get safely beyond the reach of the 
bullets. 

Powhatan was greatly chagrined at the failure of this 
strategy, and he realized that something ought to be done to 
remove the unfavorable impression which the sudden and 
violent appearance of so many of his men must have made 
upon the minds of the Englishmen. Accordingly, he sent a 
deputy to convey to Captain Smith the assurances of his great 
affection, and ask that he accept as tokens of his good will 
the bracelet and a string of pearls. In the meanwhile a num- 
ber of Indians brought baskets of corn to load Smith's vessel 
with, and, with a most amusing naivete, offered to guard the 
guns of the English while they loaded the boat. Smith de- 
clared that a proceeding just to the reverse of that would be 
more to his liking, and proceeded to persuade them to lay 
down their arms, which the Englishmen guarded while the 



76 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Indians with celerity carried the corn aboard, having- lost, at 
the sight of their loaded and lighted guns in the hands of the 
Englishmen, whatever valorous intention they may have har- 
bored. 

On account of the low tide Smith and his companions were 
obliged to remain over night at Werowocomoco. They ac- 
cordingly returned to the cabins in which they had been quar- 
tered. The savages remained with them until nightfall, en- 
tertaining them with many merry savage sports. 

In the meantime Powhatan was calling together his forces 
and agitating the destruction of his guests. The Englishmen 
were alone in the Indian cabin. Suddenly Pocahontas, whom 
Smith described as "Powhatan's dearest jewel and daughter," 
appeared in the cabin before the Englishmen. She had come 
through the dark and cold night unattended from her father's 
cabin. She told the English that Powhatan had provided a 
great feast for their supper, and that he conspired to come 
suddenly upon them preoccupied with their supper and with 
their own weapons destroy them. She therefore earnestly 
advised that, if they cared for their lives, they would be gone 
immediately. Captain Smith, grateful for this brave and 
timely warning, pressed some gifts upon the Indian princess, 
things that the childish heart must have greatly delighted in; 
but she said, with tears in her eyes, "I dare not to be seen to 
have any, for if Powhatan should know it I am but dead," and 
she ran away into the woods and disappeared out of sight. 
It turned out surely enough as she had spoken. The savages 
came bringing great platters of things to eat. They begged 
the Englishmen to put out the matches to their guns, as the 
smoke made them very sick, and to sit down and eat their 
supper. Captain Smith made the Indians to eat first of every 
dish, and then sent them back to Powhatan, telling him to 
make haste, for he was awaiting his arrival. Thrpugh the 



POCAHONTAS— HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. 7; 

night there was constant coming and going - of messengers 
back and forth from the chief, and though to every appearance 
they were on friendly terms, they were exceedingly careful 
and vigilant lest one party or the other might come to some 
unexpected and sudden advantage over the other. At the 
coming of high tide the Englishmen departed. They visited 
the Pamunkey and the Matapony Indians in search of pro- 
visions, and finally returned to Jamestown with four hundred 
and seventy-nine bushels of corn and two hundred pounds of 
deer suet. But for the timely warning given by Pocahontas, 
Smith would probably haye been seized and put to death at 
Werjowocomoco. 

On Smith's departure from the colony, Pocahontas seems 
to have utterly dropped out of sight. When we next find her 
she is with the Potomac Indians, where it is said she had gone 
to visit friends of hers. It is thought that the story of her 
betrayal of the conspiracy to attack Smith and his company 
while they were at supper had reached the ears of her father, 
Powhatan, and that he had made her life so wretched that she 
left home in order to escape his incessant anger. She had 
gone to the wigwam of one Japazaws, said to be an old ac- 
quaintance of Captain Smith, and to be kindly disposed to 
Englishmen. 

Early in 1612 Argall had been sent out by Governor Dale 
on an expedition to secure corn and provisions from the In- 
dians, and on this expedition he visited the Potomac Indians 
and discovered among them Pocahontas. It seems that in 
some way she regarded herself as being in retirement, and 
irusted that no one would recognize her. Argall conceived 
the idea that if Pocahontas could be kidnapped and held as 
hostage, Powhatan might be dealt with more successfully. 
The hostility of Powhatan was becoming more manifest every 
day. After the departure of Smith he was at little pains tQ 



78 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

disguise his hatred of the Englishmen and his purpose to be 
rid of them in any way possible. He was perfectly willing 
that they should be allowed to starve in their isolation. Argall, 
in accomplishing his kidnapping scheme, sought an interview 
with Japazaws, and offered the bribe of a copper kettle to him 
and his wife if they would assist him. It was agreed in their 
conspiracy that the maid should be beguiled aboard Argall's 
ship. Curiously enough, like other hunted things, she seemed 
especially to avoid the vessel of the English. However, the 
wife of Japazaws was consumed with a great and urgent de- 
sire to see an English ship. Her husband stubbornly refused 
to allow her to go on such a visit, and declared that if she 
said anything more about it he would give her a good whip- 
ping. As was anticipated, the tender heart of the Indian 
maiden was touched, and out of sheer pity she agreed to go 
with the woman if her husband would permit. Japazaws 
yielded reluctantly, and the three of them were taken aboard 
the ship. They remained to supper. The old chief and his 
wife, like silly children, were greatly elated at the success of 
their scheme, and kept tramping on Argall's toes under the 
table in their glee and excitement. When it was told to 
Pocahontas that she was a prisoner and would be taken to 
Jamestown, Japazaws and his loving spouse set up a great 
howl of lamentation. The old people being taken ashore, 
however, became at once greatly pleased in the possession of 
the copper kettle and some other trifling trinkets. Pocahon- 
tas was reassured by Argall, who told her that she should be 
treated kindly and would have every protection, and that by 
such a means as her captivity he expected to be able to es- 
tablish permanent peace relations between the Englishmen 
and her father. On the return to Jamestown Captain Argall 
sent forthwith messengers to Powhatan, telling him that he 
held as hostage his "delight and darling, his daughter Poca- 



POCAHONTAS— HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. 79 

fcontas," and that if he would send home the Englishmen that 
be held in captivity, and the tools and arms that the Indians 
had gotten and stolen, together with a quantity of corn, his 
daughter would be restored to him ; otherwise she would be 
kept as a prisoner. Powhatan appeared to be in great dis- 
tress over these tidings. On the one hand he had a very 
great affection for his daughter, and on the other hand he was 
mightily enamored of the English weapons which had come 
into his possession. He could not make up his mind which 
horn of the dilemma to lay hold of. He therefore pursued 
the policy of masterful inactivity and refused either horn of 
the dilemma. As many as three months passed before the 
Englishmen and Pocahontas received any answer to this pro- 
position. At the expiration of that time, however, Powhatan 
sent to the Governor, by way of ransom, seven Englishmen, 
three muskets, one broad-ax, a whip-saw and a canoe full of 
corn. He sent a message saying in effect that when his 
daughter was delivered up he would still further satisfy all 
injuries by furnishing the Englishmen with a large quanti.y 
of corn, and would be forever their friend. This advance pay- 
ment was received by the English, and they sent a message 
to Powhatan, saying: "Your daughter shall be well used, but 
we cannot believe that the rest of our arms were either lost 
or stolen from you, and therefore until you send them we will 
keep your daughter." The old chief was greatly grieved and 
offended at this answer, and for a long time had no intercourse 
with the English. Finally, in the spring of 1612, Governor 
Dale, taking with him Pocahontas and one hundred and fifty 
men, in the vessels of the colony, went on a visit to Powhatan. 
The Indian chief refused to see them on their arrival. Dale 
told the Indians that he had brought Pocahontas, and was 
anxious to deliver her back into the hands of her father, pro- 
vided Powhatan would return the rest of the Englishmen re- 



80 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

maining in captivity and the arms that had not been surren- 
dered. The Indians received these propositions with scorn and 
threats and in open hostility. Some slight skirmishes ensued 
between the two forces, in which some Indian houses were 
burned. The Indians declared that the imprisoned English- 
men had been sent away for safety, as they were in fear of 
being hung by their own countrymen, but that Powhatan had 
sent some of his men to bring them back. They declared that 
these prisoners, with the withheld swords and muskets, should 
be returned the following day. It was evident that they were 
playing for time. In the meantime two brothers of Pocahon- 
tas came to visit her on the ship anchored in the river. They 
seemed to be greatly overjoyed to find her in such good health 
and contentment, for they had been told that her health was 
poor and that she was very unhappy. While these Indian 
youths were making their visit to their sister, Mr. Rolfe ani 
Mr. Sparks were sent to interview Powhatan. They were 
accorded every hospitality, but were denied the oresence of 
the great chief. Powhatan refused to see his daughter or to 
return the prisoners and arms, or to enter into any sort of 
arrangement for peace. The Englishmen were obliged to re- 
turn to Jamestown, for it was now time that they should be 
about the planting of the crops for the new year. 

Pocahontas remained a nominal prisoner at Jamestown 
for about a year. She was treated with marked consideration 
and kindness by every one. She had always had the warmest 
feeling for the English settlers, and her life of imprisonment 
was not altogether a hardship. She was now a woman about 
eighteen or nineteen years eld. 

Amongst the colonists who took great interest in the 
princess was a Mr. John Rolfe, who was a widower of not 
very many months' standing, and who is described as an 
"honest gentleman of good behavior ;" "an honest and discreet 



POCAHONTAS— HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. 81 

English gentleman;" "a gentleman of approved behavior and 
honest carriage." Along with Somers and Gates, he had been 
wrecked on the Bermuda Islands in 1609, and with them he 
reached Virginia in May, 1610, bringing his wife and his child, 
born while they lingered with the wrecked party on the Ber- 
muda Islands. Mr. Rolfe exhibited great concern as to the 
conversion of Pocahontas to the Christian faith, and sought 
with persistent assiduity to bring her within the Christian 
fold. While he was in the prosecution of this most worthy 
purpose, he conceived the idea of marrying the Indian maiden, 
and from all appearances fell very much in love with her. It 
has, however, been suggested that Mr. Rolfe was not alto- 
gether free from some ulterior ends. It was suspected of him 
that he had concluded that such an alliance might in some 
way accrue to his advantage before the English court, and 
might secure for him some title to leadership in America. At 
any rate, Rolfe wrote a letter to Sir Thomas Dale asking his 
advice about marrying the maiden. Sir Thomas thought it a 
great scheme, and gave prompt and hearty consent. More- 
over, Pocahontas informed one of her brothers of her tender 
attachment for Mr. Rolfe. Powhatan, when informed of this 
matrimonial scheme, seems to have been as immensely pleased 
with the idea as all others were. When the time for the mar- 
riage approached, he sent an old uncle and two brothers of 
Pocahontas to Jamestown as his deputies to witness the mar- 
riage of his daughter. It was thought that it would never in 
the world do for so pious a man as Mr. Rolfe to be unequally 
yoked with the pagan maiden, and it was determined that be- 
fore the marriage was celebrated she must be baptized into 
the Christian communion and take upon herself a Christian 
name. Accordingly she was baptized, and called in her chris- 
tening "Rebecca," and because she was a king's daughter she 
was entitled to be known as the "Lady Rebecca." 



82 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Early in April, 1613, the Lady Rebecca and Mr. John Rolfe 
were united in marriage in the old church at Jamestown. 
The Indian bride was accompanied by her two brothers, and 
at the altar she was given away by her old uncle. The cere- 
mony was performed by the Rev. Alexander Whitaker. The 
wedding is mentioned in some of the old records only as an 
incident related to the welfare of the colony. It seems a 
great pity that there was not a more elaborate and detailed 
record made of this unique alliance. The colonists evidently 
regarded it as a most auspicious event, and thought that it 
would prove to be a powerful factor in the maintenance of 
amicable relations with Powhatan and his people. 

It may not be uninteresting to raise the question here of 
her former marriage to an Indian chief. Mr. Strachey alone 
furnishes ground for such a view. In speaking of Powhatan's 
family he uses this language: "And besides young Pocahon- 
tas, a daughter of his, use some time to our fort in times 
passed, now married to a private captain called 'Kococum/ 
some two years since." In view of this statement some his- 
torians speak of her as having been separated from her Indian 
husband, and others as being a widow. It is not by any 
means improbable that Mr. Strachey was in some confusion 
about this matter. He had been away from the settlement 
two years before his account was written. His information 
must have been, therefore, only hearsay. It would have been 
easy to have confused the name of Pocahontas with some 
other daughter of Powhatan's, or he might have confused the 
name of Captain Kococum with that of Captain Rolfe. The 
name "captain" was rarely given to an Indian, so it is not 
improbable that Mr. Strachey had heard only of the marriage 
cf Pocahontas to Captain Rolfe. Other than this statement 
of Mr. Strachey's there seems to be no foundation for the sug- 
gestion that she had been married before. 



POCAHONTAS— HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. 83 

The hopes touching the effect of this marriage upon the 
relations of the settlers to the Indians were in a very great 
part realized, for from the day of the marriage the English 
traded on friendly terms with Powhatan and his people. As 
far as the old chief was concerned, he never violated the peace 
that was thus brought about. 

After the marriage of Pocahontas and Mr. Rolfe, they 
went to live at Rolfe's home, "Varina," in one of the new 
settlements along the James River, known as Bermuda Hun- 
dred. Here lived Mr. Whitaker, who had charge of the spirit- 
ual interests of the plantation, and also Sir Thomas Dale 
made this his place of residence instead of Jamestown. 

Speaking of Pocahontas after her marriage, Sir Thomas 
Dale declared, "She lived civilly and lovingly with her hus- 
band, and I trust will increase in goodness as the knowledge 
of God increases in her. She will come to England with me, 
and were it but the gaining of this one soul, I will think my 
time, toil and present time as well spent." 

These three, Dale, Whitaker and Rolfe, gave themselves 
enthusiastically and industriously to the instruction of Poca- 
hontas, both in the matter of religion and in making her ac- 
quainted with the English tongue and customs. She was an 
eager and an apt pupil. She had always been interested in 
all things appertaining to the English people, and now gave 
herself with great zeal to the task of becoming familiar with 
the traditions and forms of English life. It was at her home, 
"Varina," that her little son, Thomas Rolfe, was born. 

When Dale, in 1616, embarked for England, he carried 
with him Mr. Rolfe, his wife and child, Tomocomo, and other 
Indians of both sexes. The vessel reached Plymouth in June, 
1616. Immediately upon the arrival of Pocahontas she be- 
came the guest of the Virginia Company, who provided meas- 
ures for the support and entertainment of her and her child, 



84 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Great interest was taken in her by all classes of people, but 
especially by persons of great rank and calling, she being re- 
garded as a real princess, the daughter of a King in the wilder- 
ness, who ruled, as did English sovereigns, by divine right, 
lomocomo excited widespread interest and curiosity, he be- 
ing looked upon as an "understanding fellow." Powhatan had 
given him certain important missions to be discharged. One 
of his duties while abroad was to count all the English people, 
and to be able to give, on his return, an exact idea of their 
strength. He was also charged with the task of ascertaining 
if there were any forests or grain in the country. He was 
also, when opportunity was furnished, to seek an introduction 
to the God of the Englishmen. He said to Captain Smith : 
"Powhatan did bid me to find you out to show me your God, 
and the King and Queen and princes you so much told us." 
"Concerning God," said Smith, "I told him the best I could. 
The King he heard of he had seen, and the rest he should see 
when he would." 

On the occasion of this visit to England on the part of 
Pocahontas, John Smith sought in her behalf the favor pf 
Queen Anne. He addressed to her a letter in which he re- 
cited the virtues of Pocahontas and her services to him and 
to the English colony, telling for the first time the story of 
the rescue of his life by Pocahontas. On account of these 
things he asked for her queenly consideration of the Indian 
maiden. It seems that Smith was somewhat delayed in see- 
ing Pocahontas, and somewhat formal in his conduct in her 
presence, and that his conduct greatly distressed her. The 
truth is that she had been led to believe that he was dead, 
and was as much surprised to find him alive as she was pained 
by his distant and formal treatment. What the necessity 
was for telling her that Smith was dead is not very clearly 
shown. There is the inevitable presumption that those next 



POCAHONTAS— HEROINE OF JAMESTOWN. 85 

to her and Mr. Rolfe suspected an ardent attachment on her 
part for Smith, and not until she was assured of his death 
could there be any hope that Mr. Rolfe might press his suit 
successfully. Such deceit seems to be utterly incongruous 
with the pious protestations of Mr. Rolfe, who sought above 
all things her conversion to Christianity. However these 
things may be, Pocahontas was greatly distressed that Smith 
should treat hen in any way than as a father should treat a 
child. She said to Smith : "You did promise Powhatan what 
was yours should be his, and he the like to you. You called 
him 'Father,' being in his land a stranger, and for the same 
reason so must I do to you." Smith protested, and explained 
that their relations could not be in England as they were in 
America, and that he "durst not allow that title, because she 
was regarded as a King's daughter." "Were you not afraid," 
said Pocahontas, "to com© into my father's country and cause 
fear in him and all his people but me, and fear you here I 
should call you father? I tell you then I will, and you shall 
call me chid, and so I will be forever and ever your country- 
man. They did tell us always you were dead, and I knew 
no other until I came to Plymouth." 

During his brief stay in London Captain Smith saw much 
of Pocahontas, and was pleased to introduce to her many 
courtiers and other friends who wished to know the Indian 
lady. "The gentlemen," said Smith, "generally concluded 
they did think God had a great hand in her conversion, 
and said they had seen many English ladies worse favored, 
proportioned and behavioured." Pocahontas was presented 
to the court, accompanied by Lady Delaware, and met both 
King James and his wife, Queen Anne. 

Captain Argall was about to sail for Virginia as Governor 
of the colony. It was determined that the party, except the 
other Indians, should return with him. While in England a 



86 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

portrait of Pocahontas was made, and beneath the portrait 
was this inscription: "Matoax als Rebecca, daughter to the 
mighty Prince Powhatan, Emperor of Attanough-Kornouck 
als Virginia, converted and baptized in the Christian faith, 
and wife to the worshipful Mr. John Rolfe, age 21, Anno 
Domini 1616." There is also an idealized portrait by the 
artist Sully, but unfortunately there is nothing to indicate the 
Indian maiden as she really was in the wilderness of Virginia. 

Pocahontas seemed to be unwilling to leave England, and, 
indeed, she was destined never again to s-ee Virginia. She 
was seized with galloping consumption and died, it is said, 
with her face towards the sea, at Gravesend, on the eve of her 
departure for America. Smith, in his history, speaks of her 
death in this wise: "It pleased God, at Gravesend, to take 
this young lady to His mercy, where she made not more sor- 
row for her unexpected death than joy to the beholders to 
hear and see her make so religious and godly an end." 

Her child, Thomas Rolfe, was left in England under the 
care of his uncle, Mr. H. Rolfe, a merchant in London. He 
was educated in England, and afterwards returned to America, 
and from him are descended some of the most respectable and 
worthy families of Virginia. Among them were such fam- 
ilies as Murray, Fleming, Gay, Whittle, Robertson, Boiling 
and Eldridge, as well as the branch of Randolphs to which 
the famous John Randolph of Roanoke belonged. 

One turns naturally to Mrs. Sigourney's poems for a con- 
cluding verse: 

"The council fires are quenched that erst so red 

Their midnight volume 'mid the groves entwined. 
King, stately chief, warrior host, are dead, 

Nor remnant nor memory left behind. 
But thou, O forest princess! true of heart 
"When o'er our fathers waved destruction's dart, 

Shalt in their children's loving hearts be shrined; 
Pure, lovely star o'er oblivion's wave, 
It is not meet thy name should moulder in the grave." 



CHAPTER VII. 
THE TRAVAIL OF THE NATION. 

Nations are born as individuals, in pain and suffering. 
There seems to be a necessity in the Divine order that there 
should always be in a national life a preliminar}' stage of 
painful waiting and delay. Out of the hot fires of sorrow 
and trial is born that solidarity that makes national life pos- 
sible and real. This country has been no exception to God's 
great order. In the travail of brave settlers and heroic pio- 
neers the nation came to its life. 

The exuberant spirits of the colonists incident to their 
first landing at Jamestown slowly passed away as the sum- 
mer and fall approached. It soon began to dawn upon these 
adventurers that they were not out on a picnic. After the 
excitement of their first contact with the New World they 
were confronted with the grave and practical work of main- 
taining themselves under strange and unpropitious circum- 
stances. 

It has already been remarked that the location of James- 
town Island was unfortunate because of its unsanitary condi- 
tions and lack of wholesome drinking water. The colonists 
were at first dependent upon the brackish water of the river, 
which, even at lowest ebb tide, was salt almost to bitterness, 
and at flood tide was quite impossible as drinking water. 
Somewhat later they resorted to the expedient of digging 
a well, but a shallow well under such conditions of soil would 
furnish water perhaps even less wholesome than the river. 
Besides, the surrounding country was full of malaria. On 



88 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

these accounts, even if everything- had been favorable, it would 
have been easy to have foretold coming sickness and distress. 

The supplies that were brought over were totally unfit 
and inadequate. If one thinks that the system of graft is by 
any means a modern American institution, one has only to 
read the history of the early dealings of the London Com- 
pany with avaricious merchants of the day to find that it 
was practiced with consummate skill in the early years of 
the seventeenth century. It was anticipated, to be sure, that 
these settlers would immediately find in their new surround- 
ings foodstuffs with which to supplement their meagre stock, 
but for various reasons of one sort and another, it seemed im- 
possible for them to do so. Only in the most desultory way 
did they add anything to their slender resources. Their main 
dependence seemed to have been put upon the things that 
would be furnished them from England. 

Only the smallest proportion of the first colonists were 
fitted for a life of service, either by training or by tradition. 
Some of them belonged to a class known as "gentlemen," of 
whom was not expected any very real service. Yet in com- 
mon fairness it ought to be said that these "gentlemen" re- 
sponded in a most surprising way to the demands that were 
made upon them. It was a thing commonly observed in the 
War between the States that the petted sons of fond mothers 
and doting fathers, leaving homes of .luxury and ease, bore 
the hardships of the camp and battle more successfully than 
their fellow soldiers who were used to the harder ways of 
life. So it seems it was with the "gentlemen" among the first 
settlers of Virginia. Smith, in his history, makes the follow- 
ing comment upon the conduct of these "gentlemen" when 
they were set to the task of cutting down trees and making 
clapboards: "Strange were the pleasures to their conditions, 
yet lodging, eating and drinking, working or playing, they 



THE TRAVAIL OF THE NATION. 89 

were doing- as the president did himselfe. All these things 
were carried on so pleasantly that within a weeke they be- 
came masters, making it their delight to heare the trees thun- 
der as they fell. But the axes so often blistered their tender 
fingers that many times every third blow had a loud othe to 
drown the echo, for remedie of which sinne the president de- 
vised to have every man's othes numbered at night, and for 
every othe to have a Canne of water powrd downe his sleeve, 
with which every offender was so washed himself that a man 
scarce could heare an othe in a weeke." And there is added 
this significant statement: "Let no man thinke that the presi- 
dent and these gentlemen were pressed to it as hirelings, for 
what they did after they were but once a little inured, seemed 
only pleasure." Had Smith rested his case with these state- 
ments, the reputation of these "gentlemen" as hard laborers 
would have been better, but he added: "Yet thirty or forty 
of such voluntary gentlemen would do more in a day than 
one hundred of the rest that must be pressed to it by com- 
pulsion, but twenty good workmen had been better than chem 
all." 

Others of these settlers were from a class of adventurers, 
of whom service could be expected only in exploration of the 
country and in encounter with the natives. Still others were 
of a vagabond class who had done no work at home, and were, 
of course, indisposed to it under new conditions. The residue 
fitted and willing for service was pitifully small. It would 
be difficult to find in the annals of colonization a group of 
men so poorly adapted to the circumstances into the midst 
of which they had been thrust. 

Over this incompetent group of people was placed a most 
incompetent leadership. Unfortunately, the first presidents 
of the Council, Wingfield and Ratcliffe, were both unfit and 
inexperienced. They had no idea at all of the requirements 



go COLONIAL VIRGINIA, 

of the exigency upon which they had come. They did not 
know which way to turn, nor what to advise, nor what to per- 
form. Until the election of Captain John Smith, confusion 
and anarchy reigned among the little company. His strong 
hand, large experience and wise counsel brought about a some- 
what changed condition ; but his leadership, alas ! was called 
into requisition too late and was lost all too soon to avoid 
the disasters for which they had already been foredoomed. 

The unreasonable insistence of the authorities in London 
over the search for the northwestern passage and for mines of 
gold and silver contributed not a little to the sorrowful dis- 
asters that came upon the colony. If the time and energy 
spent in the effort to accomplish these two impossible things 
had been directed to the planting of corn, improvement of 
their sanitary conditions and the betterment of their homes, 
there can be no doubt but that the calamities that came upon 
them might have been, if not wholly avoided, greatly miti- 
gated. 

When Captain Newport sailed away for England in the 
latter part of June, 1607, the settlers for the first time were 
made to realize that all communications between them and 
their old heme were cut off; for just how long, nobody could 
tell. They at once entered upon an era of sickness and suf- 
fering scarcely paralleled in the history of colonization. Mr. 
George Percy, a brother of the Earl of Northumberland, and 
one of the early settlers, in a paper called "Percy's Discourse," 
a manuscript which was preserved by Mr. Hakluyt and pub- 
lished by Mr. Brown in his "Genesis of a Nation" for the first 
time in this country, speaking of the conditions in 1607, said: 

"Captain Newport being gone for England, leaving us 
(one hundred persons) verie bare and scantie of victualls, 
furthermore in warres and in danger of savages, wee hoped 
after a supply which Captain Newport promised within twen- 
tie weeks." And then he gave the roll of the dead : 



THE TRAVAIL OF THE NATION. 91 

'"On the 6th of August, there died John Asbie, of a bloudie 
fiixe; the 9th day died George Flowre, of the swelling; the 
10th day died William Bruster, a gentleman, of a wound given 
by a savage; the 14th day Jerome Alikock (ancient), died of a 
wound; the same day Francis Midwinter and Edwin Morris, 
corporal, died suddenly." From August to September there 
died twenty-three, among them Captain Gosnold. "He was 
honorably buried, having all the ordinance of the Fort shot off 
with many volleys of small shot. Our men were destroyed 
with cruel diseases as swellings, flixes, burning fevers, and 
by warres, and some departed suddenly, but the most part of 
them died of mere famine. There were never Englishmen 
left in a foreigne countrie in such miserie as wee were in this 
new discovered Virginia. Wee watched every three nights, 
lying on the bare, cold ground, what weather soever came. 
Warded all the next day which brought our men to bee the 
most feeble wretches. Our food being a small tin of barley 
sod in water for five men a day; our drink cold water taken 
out of the river, which at flood tide was verie salt, and at low 
tide was full of slime and filth, which was the destruction of 
many of our men. Thus we lived for a space of five months 
in this miserable distress, not having five able men to man 
our bulwarks upon any occasion. If it had not pleased God 
to put a terrour in the savages' hearts, we had all perished by 
those wild and cruel pagans, being in that weak estate as we 
were. Our men night and day groaning in every corner of 
the fort, most pittiful to heare, if there were any conscience in 
men it would make their hearts bleed to hear the pittiful mur- 
murings and outcries of our sick men without relief. Every 
night and day for the space of six weeks, some departing out 
of the world, many times three or four in the night, and in the 
morning their bodies trailed out of their cabins like doggs to 
be buried. In this sort did I see the mortalitie of divers of 



92 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

cur people. It pleased God after a while to send the people 
which were our mortal enemies, to relieve us with victualls 
as bread, corn, fish, and flesh in great plentie, which was the 
setting up of our feeble men, otherwise wee had all perished." 

Before the winter had come, out of the hundred men who 
had been left by Newport, only about fifty were left alive. 

With tne approach of winter the condition of things seemed 
to have been greatly improved. Smith, by a sort of general 
consent, seemed now to have got things pretty well in his 
own hands. The members of the Council had nearly all died 
during the summer, and it was not felt necessary that their 
places should be filled. Smith had been able to secure from 
the Indians provisions which seemed to be enough to put 
them through the coming winter. He had succeeded in mak- 
ing their homes a little more comfortable, and was reasonably 
well prepared for the winter. His recent dealings with the 
Indians not only secured for them supplies, but seemed to 
have established amicable relations, so that he was entering 
upon the winter not greatly disturbed by any apprehensions 
from that quarter. 

Newport returned with the first supply early in January, 
1608, bringing about one hundred and twenty settlers, among 
them thirty-three gentlemen and twenty-one laborers. On 
the night of his arrival a fire broke out and consumed the 
fort, storehouses and most of the cabins in which the people 
were lodged. Only three houses were left standing. As if 
fate was truly against the settlement, the winter proved doubly 
hard and severe. But the colonists somehow managed to pull 
through the long winter months without any serious loss, and 
with the opening of the spring they set themselves about the 
improving of their conditions. On Newport's departure, Smith 
managed the colony well, and the settlers spent the summer 
in building their houses. 



THE TRAVAIL OF THE NATION. 93 

In September, 1608, Newport returned with the second 
supply, containing some seventy settlers, among- them twenty- 
eight gentlemen, fourteen tradesmen, and twelve laborers. 
This supply, like the first, was really a very small addition to 
the comfort and welfare of the colony. The supplies that were 
brought over from England were always inferior in quality 
and insufficient in quantity. It was complained, not without 
reason, that the new settlers brought over with each supply, 
mstead of being helpful, proved to be a burden ; and instead 
of simplifying the situation, greatly embarrassed and compli- 
cated it. If the settlers could have been left at home and the 
supplies, meagre as they were, brought over alone, the situa- 
tion might have been improved. As it was, conditions re- 
mained as grave as they possibly could be. Full of foreboding 
and distrust, Smith set about the preparations for the winter 
of l5c8-i6o9. Smith was further embarrassed by the unrea- 
sonable and hard requirements that Newport had brought 
back from the London Company on his second return. Al- 
ready the patrons of the company were impatient for returns 
and intolerant of excuse or delay; hence the company asked 
that there must be some return for the expenditures that had 
been made. The company especially exacted one of three 
things, upon the return of Newport, at the hands of the colo- 
nists : that some gold and silver be sent back, or that the dis- 
covery of the northwestern passage be assured, or that at 
least one of the lost colony of Roanoke Island be found and 
sent back to England. 

Moreover, the company complained of the management of 
the colony; so Captain John Smith, in his brave and brusque 
and withal sane and level-headed style, wrote to the company 
a letter known as "Smith's Rude Answer," exhibiting great 
boldness and exceeding wisdom. In reply to the complaint 
that the colony was full of factions, and that Smith was with- 
holding important information, he made answer that he was 



94 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

riiot responsible for these dissensions, nor could he prevent 
them; and furthermore, that he had not withheld from them 
any knowledge that he possessed, but that he feared that "they 
had come to believe even much more than was true." He 
furthermore stated that while he had carried out their instruc- 
tions in relation to the coronation of Powhatan, he had not a 
particle of sympathy in any such proceeding. He declared: 
"I fear they will be the confusion of us all ere we hear from 
you again." There is proof that others shared with Smith in 
his foreboding as to the result of these coronation circum- 
stances. It was evidently apprehended that Powhatan, al- 
ready thinking sufficiently well of himself, would be encour- 
aged to arrogate to himself hereafter extraordinary privileges 
and rights. As to the finding of the passage to the South 
Seas and the discovery of gold and silver, or the effort to find 
any of the lost colony of Roanoke Island, Smith ventured to 
suggest that time spent in those directions would be wasted, 
and had better be put upon more important concerns. He 
suggested that they be somewhat more careful in their selec- 
tion of settlers that they were sending from time to time. He 
wrote : "When you send againe I entreat you rather send but 
thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, black- 
smiths, masons and diggers up of trees' roots, well provided, 
than a thousand of such as we have ; for except we be able 
both to lodge them and feed them, the most will consume with 
want of necessaries before they can be made good for any- 
thing." He closed this remarkable answer with these words : 
"And I humbly intreat you hereafter, let us know what we 
should receive, and not stand to the saylers' courtesie to leave 
us what they please, els you may charge us what you will, but 
we not you with anything. These are the causes that have 
kept us in Virginia from laying such a foundation that ere 
this might have given much better content and satisfaction; 



THE TRAVAIL OF THE NATION. 95 

but as yet you must not looke for any profitable returns; so 
I humbly rest." 

Newport remained in trie colony for several months, a dis- 
turber of the peace, making dissensions wherever he could, 
and constantly adding fuel to the flames of discontent and 
strife. He allowed himself to be drawn into the conspiracy 
that sought to depose Smith as president. Not until the end 
of the year 1608 did he sail for England, carrying with him 
Smith's rude answer, and a cargo of such "pitch, tar, glass 
and soap ashes" as the colonists had been able to get ready. 

There were left behind him two hundred settlers. Smith 
secured by compulsion from Powhatan and Opechancanough 
corn and other supplies for their sustenance during the com- 
ing winter, and although the settlers did not take proper care 
of this valuable store, their sufferings were not very severe. 
It was, however, found necessary that some of the settlers 
should be sent to live among the Indians, while others were 
sent to catch fish in the James River, providing in this way 
a supply of sturgeon meat. During the winter Smith sought 
to carry out the instructions that had come from the com- 
pany in London, and sent a party to search for the lost colony 
of Roanoke. 

The spring of 1609 found most of the settlers alive and in 
good health, and the men went eagerly to work planting crops, 
strengthening the palisades and improving their houses. 

In the meantime the London Company had secured a new 
charter and had appointed Lord Delaware as Governor and 
Captain-General of Virginia. Nine vessels were fitted out 
and dispatched to Virginia with five hundred settlers. Seven 
of these vessels, after having experienced severe storms, ar- 
rived at Jamestown in August, 1609, bringing the third supply. 
Among the influential men of this new instalment were two 
of Smith's old enemies, Archer and Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe had 



96 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

been deposed from the presidency of the colony for ineffi- 
ciency, and had been sent back home. In some way he 
succeeded in having himself restored to favor, and came back 
evidently agreeing with Archer to make it as disagreeable for 
Smith as possible. Ratcliffe came to an untimely end before 
he had been able to do much mischief. In undertaking to 
deal with the Indians as he had seen Smith do, he fell into an 
ambuscade, was captured and cruelly tortured to death. 

It seemed that no one in the new supply brought any com- 
mission to dislodge and succeed Smith. As delegates of Lord 
Delaware there were only three gentlemen, Sir George Somers, 
Sir Thomas Gates and Captain Newport, who were equipped 
with this official prerequisite. These had, for some reason, 
gotten themselves all together in the same boat, which boat 
was separated from the fleet and eventually wrecked upon 
the shores of the Bermudas. Smith's term of office had not 
yet expired, and though no one had a commission to displace 
him, Archer, Ratcliffe and their followers sought to usurp 
the government. Smith, however, proved himself equal to 
the emergency, arrested the malcontents, and sent Captain 
West, a brother of Lord Delaware, with one hundred and 
twenty others, to make a settlement where Richmond now 
stands. As has already been stated, Smith, on returning 
from this plantation to Jamestown, was severely wounded, 
and was forced to return to England for medical treatment. 

It was a bad day for the settlement when Smith left it. 
It would be too much to say that the disasters which came 
upon them would have been avoided had he remained at 
Jamestown; it is not too much to say, however, that many 
of these disasters would have been avoided and the colonists 
would have been saved, at least, from some of the awful 
sufferings that followed. At any rate, there would have 
been among them a brave and untiring soldier, exemplifying 



THE TRAVAIL OF THE NATION. 97 

fortitude and exhibiting - utter unselfishness in his care for 
those under his charge. 

If the sufferings of the colonists had already been great, 
they were not to be compared with the calamities through 
which they were to go in the winter of 1609-1610. There is 
not a more pitiful annal than the story of that long, hard 
winter. Their supplies were soon exhausted ; the Indians 
had been offended and alienated, and were now using every 
opportunity to harass and destroy the settlers. It soon be- 
came impossible for these wretched colonists, shut in at 
Jamestown, to secure food to save themselves from starva- 
tion. The shallow well from which they got their drinking 
water proved to be full of deadly poison. They fell sick in 
great numbers, and those who were not sick were so starved 
as to be unable to care for the sick or to procure food. The 
horses, cattle and hogs that had been brought over for breed- 
ing purposes were all slaughtered and eaten. Then they ate 
dogs, rats and adders; every sort of living thing upon which 
they could lay their hands they ate. First an Indian who had 
been killed was eaten ; a poor wretch killed his own wife, eat- 
ing a part of her and salting down the remainder for future 
use. For this crime he was burned at the stake. Men in their 
suffering and desolation flung away their Bibles and cried 
cut in rebellion against God. They went into the winter five 
hundred in number; they came out of the winter with only 
sixty-five stricken and wasted wretches. Such was the trag- 
edy of the "Starving Time." 

Rescue came In a way that they had least anticipated. 
In the instalment of settlers that had come over in August, 
1609, two of the vessels had become separated from the 
fleet — one was lost and the other was wrecked upon the 
shores of the Bermuda Islands, Strangely enough, in this 
\essel, which was called the Sea Venture, Newport, Gates 



98 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

and Somers, with their families, sailed together. It is sup- 
posed that these three kept together because each was jeal- 
ous of the other, it having been apprehended that the first to 
arrive would have command of the colony. The commanders 
p{ this wrecked party set about immediately to build vessels 
in which the voyage to Jamestown might be continued and 
completed. Two small boats were constructed, named the 
Patience and Deliverance. After loading them with such 
supplies as could be found upon the island, such as turtles, 
salt fish and salt fowl, the wrecked and delayed party set sail 
for Jamestown, arriving there in the spring of 1610. The 
church bell was rung, and the wasted and starved colonists 
were summoned to the dilapidated church to greet these men 
who had brought rescue, and to return thanks for their de- 
liverance. It was soon discovered, however, that the sup- 
plies which they brought would scarcely last longer than two 
or three weeks. After a conference it was decided that the 
whole company should return to England, going by way of 
Newfoundland, where they hoped to fall in with English 
fishermen and thereby be able to replenish their store of pro- 
visions. Accordingly, in four small vessels the entire party 
embarked, leaving the town standing, as it was decided that 
it had better not be burned. When they had about reached 
the mouth of the James River they met ships coming from 
England under the command of Lord Delaware. He issued 
command that the entire party should return at once to James- 
town. Many of the settlers who had passed through that 
dreadful winter obeyed most reluctantly. However, all hands 
returned to the island and landed on the next day at James- 
town. 

On reaching the shore, Lord Delaware fell upon his knees 
and gave thanks for the wonderful deliverance that had been 
brought to the settlers, and invoked the Divine blessing* and 
guidance for the years that were to come. 



THE TRAVAIL OF THE NATION. 99 

In many ways the coming" of Lord Delaware proved to be 
a real blessing to the Virginia colonists, and was really the 
turning point in the career of the settlers. He brought over 
many things that would contribute to the growth and well- 
being of the colony. His administration, though attended 
with considerable pomp and display that seemed to be utterly 
incongruous with his immediate surroundings, was on the 
whole satisfactory and prosperous. But he himself became 
discontented in the midst of his new surroundings. He de- 
termined to govern the colony by deputy and to return to 
England. He gave as his excuse that he was not able physi- 
cally to stand the climate in Virginia. With all the ailments 
that he represented himself to have had, had he possessed 
the lives of a dozen men instead pf one, it would have been 
marvelous for him to have escaped a grave with the others at 
Jamestown. However, he sailed away for England in March, 
161 1, leaving as his representative George Percy, who had 
been in charge of the colony during the terrible winter of 1610. 

It would seem, with the experience that the colonists had 
gathered and the new life that had come in with the addi- 
tional supplies, that their sufferings would now be at an end, 
and that they might face the future more confident of health 
and prosperity than ever before. If Lord Delaware might 
have continued his wise and kindly rule, this might have been 
trite. To be sure, there never came to them again such famine 
and pestilence through which they had already passed, but 
hardship and trial awaited them for some years yet to come. 
Soon after Lord Delaware's departure there came over as 
High Marshal of Virginia, Sir Thomas Dale, who was the 
especial friend of Prince Henry, and who was appointed upon 
the prince's earnest commendation. He had been a soldier 
and was a man of iron will, and of heart seemingly as hard 
as his will. He set about at once to rule the colony with the 

LOFC 



ioo COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

most strict and heartless absolutism. He tolerated interfer- 
ence from no quarter whatever; he was the absolute and un- 
disputed autocrat of the colony. It was worth a man's life 
to raise any question of his right or authority. Matters of 
life and death were altogether in his hands, and from him 
there was nu appeal. And yet his administration was in 
many things exceeding wise, an(| in the long run was no 
doubt wholesome and beneficent for the settlers. Out of the 
chaos and confusion into which the colony had fallen, he 
brought order and system. Every man was put instantly 
to work. The old socialistic idea of working for a common 
fund was abandoned. He divided the land into small plots 
and distributed them among the settlers, requiring that every 
man diligently cultivate the plot allotted to him. This was 
a vast improvement, although the exactions required of the 
settlers were so large as to leave little for individual profit 
or gain. Dale's whole idea was to make money for the com- 
pany, and if he used the colony justly and wisely, it was in 
order that he might get the better results and service out of 
them. As time wore on, instead of growing softer and kinder 
in his rule, he seemed to become harder and more tyrannical. 
The penalty of death was inflicted with undignified flippancy 
and unprecedented frequency. This sort of administration 
could not be maintained without exciting great dissatisfac- 
tion, and the discontent of the settlers was widespread; and 
yet, for fear of punishment, it was concealed as much as pos- 
sible. In making up an estimate of Dale's administration, 
there is no little confusion on account of the mixed testimony 
one finds. It will be discovered that the friends of the com- 
pany, even the best of them, give hearty endorsement to his 
administration and speak of him as being the saviour of the 
colony. They testified not only to the wisdom of his rule, 
but, strangely enough, to the piety of it. On the other hand, 



THE TRAVAIL OF THE NATION. 101 

the testimony of those who lived in the colony under his ad- 
ministration is that he was a hard-hearted taskmaster, and 
that his administration was marked with a cruelty as unne- 
cessary as it was wicked. However all this may be, it is very 
plain that such administration as his was a part of that dis- 
ciplinary training- through which the new nation had to pass. 
In 1616 Sir Thomas Dale returned to England, leaving Mr. 
George Yeardley as deputy governor. Yeardley was a wise 
and an energetic man, and might be called the first political 
economist of America. He first came to Virginia with 
Somers in 1610, and was with the party shipwrecked on the 
Bermuda Islands. During the time of Dale's administration 
he was a member of the colony, and had control of the plan- 
tation of "Flower de Hundred." Here he introduced the first 
windmill in America, and brought over the first real herd of 
blooded cattle, having imported a herd of twenty-four cows. 
He planted much Indian corn and wheat, and advocated the 
fertilization of the soil with marl. He was quick to observe 
the success that had attended John Rolf's experiments in the 
raising of tobacco, and lost no time in encouraging its gen- 
eral cultivation. But he remained deputy Governor only for 
a year, and was succeeded by Argall. 

Argall was from the beginning a thief and a grafter of 
the deepest dye. He robbed the colony of everything that 
could be moved. He had for his partner at home a man by 
fne name of Rich, who secured contracts from the London 
Company for furnishing supplies to the colonists. So while 
Argall robbed the colonists abroad, Rich took care of the 
friends at home. The settlers were unable, under such nefa- 
rious rule, to lay by anything for themselves. They simply 
toiled as slaves whipped to their labors, and the results of 
their toil went into the pockets of their shameless Governor; 
so, however they might labor, their poverty, hunger and dis- 



102 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

tress still continued. The conduct of Argall became so open 
and outrageous that, in 1618, he was finally recalled and Sir 
George Yeardley made Governor of Virginia. 

Under the change of administration, both in the London 
Company and in the colony, Virginia was now to enter upon 
a new career. While all the problems of the colony were 
not solved, nor all the difficulties passed, the future was as- 
sured. The long night of the "Starvation Times" was passed, 
and the dawn of a new day had come. The travail of the 
nation was over, and a new people was to take its place 
among the nations of the world. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
THE BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA. 

It is pretty well known that Virginia was the first per- 
manent English settlement in America; that she was the 
first colony to have slaves, and also was the first colony to 
have a legislative assembly. But it is not as well known as 
it might be that it was also the first colony to plan for an in- 
stitution of learning. The unfortunate utterance of Governor 
Berkeley when he said, "I thank God there are no free schools 
nor printing, and I hope we shall not have them these hun- 
dred years," has been quoted as representing the spirit and 
method of the first colony in Virginia with reference to edu- 
cation, when the truth of the matter is that one of the very 
first enterprises toward which the best thought of those in- 
terested in the life of the colony was directed was concern- 
ing the education especially of the children of the aborigines. 

There was established in the city of Henrico, located at 
a point on James River now known as Dutch Gap, a school 
that was intended to be the first university in America. This 
little town was first named in 1611. It was planned by Sir 
Thomas Dale, and was intended by him to be the future capi- 
tal of Virginia. It contained as many as three streets of 
well-framed houses, a church, and was protected by five block- 
houses, with a ditch and paling over a mile in length. From 
the very form of Henrico the idea of a school was clearly 
prominent. In the grant which was made for the establish- 
ment of a town, reference was made to a college immediately 

103 



104 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

to be built and also for a university in the course of time. 
The school was built, to be sure, with the idea of educating 
the Indians alone, and it was planned to have a free school in 
Charles City county as a feeder for the college. 

The history of this school is meagre, but the records of 
the London Company from April 28, 161 9, to June 2J, 1624, 
are well preserved, and mention is made here and there of the 
Henrico colony. There are also some letters of the period 
that allude to the beginnings of the college. In 1618 Gov- 
ernor Yeardley was instructed to choose a suitable site at Hen- 
rico and to prepare for the building of the college. 

In the records of the company in May, 1609, there is a 
statement that King James, in 1618, had authorized the bishops 
and clergy of England to make a collection for the college and 
university in the Colony of Virginia, and the report was made 
to the company that £1,500 had been collected for this pur- 
pose; and it was further resolved that certain lands in Hen- 
rico should be laid out for a college, on which fifty persons 
should be situated, and that one-half of the revenues of these 
lands should go toward the maintenance of the institution of 
learning A month later a board of trustees was nominated 
by the company, to be under the control of the Privy Council 
of England. This board of trustees was to provide for in- 
structors, and to direct other matters relating to the institu- 
tion. 

While this was going on in England, Sir George Yeardley 
had arrived at Jamestown, and he immediately called a grand 
assembly of twenty-two burgesses from the eleven plantations 
then constituting the colony. Among the things considered 
by this first House of Burgesses were the resolutions with re- 
ference to the college. One of these resolutions provided that 
each plantation should maintain a certain number of native 
children, who should be prepared by instruction so that they 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA. 105 

would be ready to enter college. Another resolution requested 
the company to send to the colony some good carpenters to 
proceed with the building of the institution. 

These laws were passed before the Pilgrim Fathers had 
even landed at Plymouth, and were without doubt approved 
by the company, for we are told that the company requested 
that the proprietors of Smith's Hundred in Virginia, on the 
James River, educate a certain number of young Indians, and 
promised the sum of £550 should this be done. The pro- 
prietors asked to be relieved from this obligation, offering 
£100 to the company, but their request was not granted. 

Later in the same year, at the suggestion of Sir Edwin 
Sandys, it was proposed that three hundred tenants be placed 
upon the public lands in Virginia — one hundred on the Gov- 
ernor's land, one hundred on the company's land, and one hun- 
dred on the college land. Sir Edwin calculated that this would 
yield a revenue of £3,000 per year, and thus the college lands 
would yield £1,000. The amount of land set aside for the 
whole educational plan was ten thousand acres, of which one 
thousand acres should be used for the college, the other 
nine thousand acres to be developed and the increase to be 
kept for a proposed large university. Shortly after this, May 
11, 1620, George Thorpe was sent out as a deputy to govern 
the college lands. He was, therefore, the first superintendent 
of the school property of Virginia. The company had in mind 
that Thorpe should get under way the buildings to receive 
the rector and instructors to be sent later. He was specially 
instructed to have a house built for a clergyman who should 
reside at Henrico. 

Under the direction of Thorpe ten tenants were placed 
upon the lands of the college, and soon after the number was 
mcreased. The Rev. Mr. Copland, in England, taking a deep 
interest in educational matters, proposed that a free school 



io6 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

be established at Charles City, now City Point. One thou- 
sand acres of land were appropriated for the purpose, and five 
persons were sent to work upon it. This school was to be 
preparatory to the college at Henrico. An usher was ap- 
pointed, but he declined the honor unless he could have the 
title of master. A number of donations were made in Eng- 
land, such as a communion table and set, £55° m gold, and 
a library valued at one hundred marks. Nicholas Farrar, in 
his will, left £300 to the college, to be paid as soon as ten 
young savages had been placed in the institution ; "in the 
meantime four and twenty pounds yearly to bee distributed 
unto three discreet and godly young men in the colony to 
bring up three wilde young infidels in some good course in 
life." Later on George Ruggles gave a legacy of £100. 

Finally, in July, 1622, the company elected the Rev. Pat- 
rick Copland as rector of the institution. This was done just 
a few days before the news of the massacre of March 22, 1622, 
leached England. On that day the Indians, headed by their 
old chief, Opechancanough, rose up and destroyed 347 men, 
women and children out of a total population numbering 
about 1,258 persons. But for the news which was brought 
to the settlers by a converted Indian who had been chris- 
tened under the name of "Perry," Jamestown and other of 
the lower settlements would have been destroyed. As it 
was, the town of Henrico was totally annihilated, and 
George Thorpe, the superintendent of college lands, was 
killed, and seventeen of the college tenants perished with him. 
Thus came to an end the proposed college. 

The Colonial Dames of America (Chapter I.), deploring 
the neglect of these facts in Virginia's history, have offered 
to the Johns Hopkins University a medallion, to be conferred 
annually upon some graduate or student of the university 
for the best essay on American history. The medallion cpn- 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA. 107 

tains this inscription : "The University pi Henrico, destroyed 
in the massacre March 22, 1622." In the centre of the medal- 
lion is George Thorpe, and behind him stand his tenants, while 
in front are the Indians rushing upon them. 

Though the massacre was a terrible blow, the company 
did not at once abandon the idea of a college. A new super- 
intendent of the lands was appointed, but to no avail, as the 
settlers absolutely refused to rebuild the city of Henrico. The 
company, however, constantly bore in mind the need of edu- 
cational facilities in Virginia, and instructions were given to 
Sir Francis Wyatt to see that the children were taught in 
every town and borough so that they might be prepared for 
college. It is also on record that carpenters came in the good 
ship Abigail to build the East India School at Charles City. 

The colony was divided into parishes, and there is every 
reason to believe that instruction was carried on in every one 
of these parishes. 

In 1635 it is recorded that Benjamin Symms donated a 
freehold of two hundred acres on the Pocosin River, in Eliza- 
beth City county, for the support of a free school for the edu- 
cation of children in the parishes of Elizabeth and Kicquotan. 

A few years later, for the same purpose, Thomas Eaton 
left an estate in the same county. The high school at Hamp- 
ton, Va., is to-day called the Symms-Eaton School, in honor 
of these founders of the first free school in Virginia. 

At the time of Bacon's Rebellion it is recorded that one 
Henry Peasley left six hundred acres in Gloucester county 
for the maintenance of a school for the children of Abingdon 
and War e parishes. This school was established and became 
known as the "Peasley School," and continued its work for 
eighty years without interruption. 

In 1660 the House of Burgesses took steps towards the 
establishment of a college, but the matter was delayed until 



log COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

finally, through the efforts of the clergy and burgesses, under 
the direction of Commissary James Blair, the College of Wil- 
liam and Mary was established in 1693. This charter was 
granted by the sovereigns of England, William and Mary, 
and the college was named after them. It is the oldest insti- 
tution of learning south of the Potomac River, and next to 
Harvard in age in the United States. 

The revenues provided for the college were one penny per 
pound on the tobacco exported from Virginia to any English 
plantation in America. The King granted, out of quit rents, 
£2,000 toward the building^ and one cent per pound on all 
tobacco exported from Virginia. 

The story goes that the charter would never have been 
secured but for the King, as the board of trade and the Eng- 
1 sh officials were against it. Mr, Blair is said to have gone 
to the English Attorney-General, Seymour, with a command 
from the King that a charter be prepared, but the Attorney- 
General asked Mr. Blair "what was the rise of such an institu- 
tion?" The commissary replied "that they needed it for the 
preparation of young men entering the ministry," and begged 
Mr. Seymour to "remember that there were souls in Virginia 
to be saved as well as in England." "Souls !" said Attorney 
Seymour, "damn your souls — you make tobacco." This in- 
dicated clearly the spirit of many of the people in England. 
By many Virginia was regarded only as a possession of Eng- 
land, to be used to enrich its merchant class. This spirit, 
manifested from the beginning, was the spirit shown by Sir 
William Berkeley, and it produced Bacon's Rebellion, and it 
was the same spirit that alienated all the colonies from the 
mother country. 

From the time of its establishment until the Revolution- 
ary War, William and Mary College was the richest institu- 
tion in America, and had a better course of instruction than 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA. 109' 

Harvard, Yale, Nassau Hall (now Princeton University), 
King's College (now Columbia University), University of 
Pennsylvania, Brown or Dartmouth. 

In connection with these statements about William and 
Mary, and in most grateful appreciation of his charming 
contribution to Virginia's history, we venture to quote in full 
from Mr. Fiske's "Old Virginia and Her Neighbors": 

"It was the first college in America to introduce teaching 
by lectures and the elective system of study. It was the first 
to unite a group of faculties into a university. It was the 
second in the English world to have a chair of municipal 
law, George Wythe coming to such a professorship a few 
years after Sir William Blackstone. It was the first in Amer- 
ica to establish a chair of history and political science, and 
it was one of the first to pursue a thoroughly secular and 
unsectarian policy, though, until lately, its number of students 
at any one time had never reached one hundred and fifty 
It has given to our country fifteen Senators and seventy Rep- 
resentatives in Congress ; seventeen Governors of States, and 
thirty-seven judges; three Presidents of the United States — 
Jefferson, Monroe and Tyler — and the great Chief Justice 
Marshall." 

To these distinguished graduates there might be added 
many other names. Indeed, the college educated most of the 
men who led Virginia in the times preceding and immediately 
following the Revolutionary War. Quite a few 'of the sons of 
richer Virginians went to Oxford and Cambridge, the alma 
maters of their fathers. William Byrd, 2d, was, for example, 
an Oxford man, and so were Richard H. Lee and Thomas Nel- 
son. Such, however, was the excellence of the instruction and 
training given at William and Mary that it was soon dis- 
covered it was not at all necessary to send the sons of the 
Colony across the water in order that they might receive ade- 



no COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

quate educational girding and equipment. It is worthy of 
note that the Phi Beta Kappa Society was organized at this 
college in 1776. 

It is interesting to remember that at William and Mary 
provision was made for the education of the Indians. The 
founders were trying to carry out the policy which the Lon- 
don Company had tried seventy-five years before. It is re- 
lated that the Queen of Pamunkey sent her boy to the college 
with a valet, and that there were two other sons of Indian 
chiefs. It is not a matter of record as to how long these rep- 
resentatives of the aborigines of Virginia remained within 
the classic walls of William and Mary. It is easy to imagine, 
however, that it was not long before they began to sigh for 
the chase and to long for the freedom of the wild life to which 
they had been used, and that they found it impossible to hold 
themselves long in subjection to the limitations and restric- 
tions incident to academic life. 

It is very amusing to observe the very serious and praise- 
worthy efforts of these Englishmen on behalf of the educa- 
tion of the Indians. It seemed to be imagined on their part 
a facile matter to lasso these Indian youths and make the 
school and home life pleasant for them with the mere fur- 
nishing of academic advantages. It proved, however, to be a 
case not only where it was difficult to catch the hare, but 
Larder still to skin him after he was caught. 

The first commencement of the college, which was held 
in 1700, was an incident of widespread interest throughout ths 
colonies of the country. It is said that not only a large num- 
ber of the Virginians themselves were present, but the Indians 
also came in gala array, and that representatives cam e even 
from Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. 

With the close of the Revolution the parish schools were 
abolished when church and state were separated, but in a 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA, in 

short while there came into existence what was known as the 
"charity" school. Sales of property belonging to the parishes 
were in some instances used for the establishment of these 
schools, which were used for the educating of poor children. 
In addition, citizens employed teachers and established private 
and select schools. In 1796 a law was passed authorizing the 
appointment of school commissioners, to be known as the 
"aldermen of the county." Their duty was to divide the 
county up into districts in which schools should be estab- 
lished. Teachers were to be paid at public cost, and all chil- 
dren were to have three schooling years free. Here was the 
origin of the public school system of Virginia as a district 
matter. To each locality was assigned the right and duty of 
maintaining schools, and to a certain extent this is true even 
to this day. The provisions of the act of 1796 became opera- 
tive in a number of the counties. 

In 1809 was created a literary fund which provided that 
all escheats, confiscations and forfeitures of the Common- 
wealth should become the property of this fund, and that all 
military fines should also be used by this same fund for the 
education of the poor. This fund has grown greatly in size, 
and is to-day a source of great revenue to the public school 
system, amounting to more than one million and a half dol- 
lars. 

In the various counties of Virginia were appointed school 
commissioners, and from 1810 to the time of the Civil War, 
all the poor children of Virginia had the privilege of going to 
school, provided they made application to the school commis- 
sion. Teaching was done chiefly in the "old field" schools, 
as they were termed. Teachers in these schools were often 
classical scholars, and those persons who could afford to 
pay for the tuition of their children were required to do so. 
Statistics relating to the work of this system are difficult 



H2 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

to secure, but in Martin and Brockenborough's "Gazetteer" 
of 1833 we are told that there were 2,833 schools in which 
the State was interested, and that there were in the hun- 
dred counties 32,804 poor children, of which number 17,087 
were in school at the expense of $42,996.27. The State also 
paid for the text-books for these poor children. 

At the close of the Civil War a free public school system 
was provided for, and now in every city and county are a 
number of schools free to all, maintained with State aid by 
the city, county or district, as the case may be. 

We are not to conclude, therefore, that Virginia never 
had a public school system until 1870. It is true that a sys- 
tem of schools free to all did not exist until then, but edu- 
cation at the expense of the State had been provided since 1796, 
and more fully since 1809, for those who were not in a posi- 
tion to pay for their own tuition. 

It is an interesting fact that the percentage of illiteracy 
among the whites in Virginia before the war was very little 
more than the present percentage of illiteracy, although for 
the last twenty years we have been waging an active cam- 
paign in favor of education. 

If this chapter on education in Virginia seems to be a 
trifle polemic, let it be remembered that it is concerning a 
matter about which there has been much unnecessary misin- 
formation and misrepresentation on the part of those who 
might have known better. To quote the saying of Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley as given in the beginning of this chapter, 
without explanation or qualification, is to make the inevitable 
impression that there was no appreciation of education in the 
Virginia Colony. Precisely this many historians have been 
willing to do ; indeed, this impression has been given so often, 
that one must have far more equanimity of spirit than the 
average Virginian is ever supposed to have, not to resent 




J;imcs Blair. 
Commissar* William ji.J Mjr\ College 



BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA. 113 

an imputation for which there is so little basis of fact in a 
history easily to be known and understood. This utterance 
must not be taken as a disparagement of educational move- 
ments in other parts of colonial America. The superb edu- 
cational work of our fellow-countrymen of New England has 
become at pnce the heritage and the pride of all patriotic 
Americans. The plain truth is that, living in such an era and 
being fresh from the atmosphere of Europe in the sixteenth 
century, it were not possible, either at Jamestown or at Ply- 
mouth, to be other than interested in education and the ad- 
vance of letters. On anything like a close scrutiny it will be 
discovered that here, as elsewhere, the life of the colonists 
moved along parallel lines. This must needs be so, because 
there was to them both a common ancestry and, in things 
vital and essential, a common environment. 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

The intelligence of the first Virginians was such as to en- 
able them to understand that larger returns might be had 
from a wise use of the brain than from the employment of 
the hand only. Their ambitions were larger than could be 
satisfied with the product of their own hands. They discov- 
ered very soon that in the cultivation of tobacco there was a 
large place for wise superintendence. Not that the first Vir- 
ginians were indisposed to labor, for they had already given 
proof of their willingness to perform hard labor and to en- 
dure severe toil in the building up of the colony. It was sim- 
piy a question as to what methods would produce the iargest 
results. It seemed to them that instead of cultivating to- 
bacco in such insignificant patches as only one hand could 
care for, that much larger returns would come from the culti- 
vation of such areas as would require many hands under wise 
direction. 

The forms of labor in the Virginia Colony really distin- 
guished it from the northern colonies. This form of service 
grew out of the necessities of the case. In the cultivation of 
tobacco a cheap form of labor was required, and the rapidity 
with which the cultivation of tobacco spread, made an un- 
usually hasty and urgent d.'emand on the labor market. It 
was necessary, if the supply of tobacco should keep pace with 
the rapidly increasing demand for it, that large areas of land 
should be brought under cultivation, and to do this much 
new land had to be cleared and many hands had to be there- 

114 



LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 115 

fore employed. This condition will explain the rapid develop- 
ment and establishment of the form of labor employed in the 
Virginia Colony. At first only white labor was employed, 
with here and there an Indian who had been indentured by 
his parents. It was not until 1619 that there was even a be- 
ginning in the employment of negro labor. The increase of 
this class was very slow for many years. 

The system o£ labor known as the "indenture system" 
was the method employed. Under such an arrangement the 
laborer either sold himself or was sold to a master under 
such agreements as were mutually acceptable, and under 
such conditions as were clearly understood. 

Of the white labor there were two sorts, voluntary and 
involuntary. There was a class of laborers who entered of 
their own accord into this arrangement of indenture. They 
were people who were anxious to come to Virginia but who 
were unable to bear the expense of coming, and who were 
unable to adequately equip themselves for any productive 
work in the colony. So in order to be in a position to come 
to the colony, they selected for a term of years to become the 
servants of som e masters with whom a satisfactory contract 
could be made. Many of these were thoroughly good people, 
and after the term of indenture expired took an honorable and 
useful place in the community, none the less respected and 
esteemed because of their term of indenture. 

The involuntary class was composed of people who, for 
one reason or another, were forced into service against their 
wishes. There were those who were kidnapped by agents or 
masters of vessels and brought to the colony. These were 
usually taken from the streets of the larger cities, more espe- 
cially from London and Bristol. The larger part of the kid- 
napped class were boys and girls who had not arrived at the 
age of maturity. It is easy to see that there might be very 
great extremes in the character of these people. Children of 



1 16 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the better stock might easily have been kidnapped as well as 
those of the worse kind. At any rate, it is known that from 
I his class there came to prominence and usefulness some wor- 
thy persons. 

Among- the involuntary class can also be placed the crimi- 
nals who were exported from England to the colony. These 
themselves are to be sub-divided into two plainly distinct 
classes. There was one class of the flagrantly criminal com- 
ing from the lowest conditions of society. These had been 
guilty of every possible crime, and were exported to the colo- 
nies to be sold into slavery, thus ridding the old country of a 
bad class of people and saving expenses incident to the en- 
forcement of penalties. Although there was an exceedingly 
great necessity for labor, it was early discovered that such 
additions to the colony were of no real advantage, but rather 
introduced an element of danger that had been succesfully 
avoided up to this time. 

Of the class of criminals there were many whose offenses 
had been comparatively light, the penalty for their wrong- 
doing being all out of proportion in severity to the crime com- 
mitted. For instance, for a woman to steal a piece of meat 
for her hungry children, was, according to the law of England, 
guilty of a capital offense, and the penalty was death. This ex- 
treme penalty was very common even for such slight offenses, 
and presented an inexpensive and quick way of ridding the 
community of violators of the law. But among the judges and 
magistrates there was a sense of justice that made them very 
willing to substitute the penalty of exportation for those who 
were not hardened criminals. Very many who came to Vir- 
ginia as criminals were really criminals in no serious sense 
of the term. They had been violators of the law in a way 
which in our day would be considered a very small offense, 
and the penalty of which would be a small fine or a few days' 
imprisonment. Many of these having been given a new chance 



LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 117 

under favorable conditions, vindicated themselves of the badge 
ot crime under which they had come to the colonies. 

Still another class of those who entered unwillingly into 
service consisted of political offenders and prisoners of war. 
Of the political offenders there were never very many. After 
the restoration of the monarchy not a few dissenters were 
exported to the colonies, and were indentured for a term of 
service. Many of these were substantial people, and after- 
wards occupied places in society befitting their character and 
capacity. 

Of the prisoners of war there were quite a large number 
sent over from time to time. In 165 1, after the battle of Wor- 
cester, there wer e sent into Virginia 1,610 soldiers. Two 
years later 100 Irish prisoners of war were sent over. In 
1685 a number of the followers of Monmouth came over. 

The contracts entered into between the servant and his 
master were very simple, usually indicating the term of years 
for which the indenture was to last, the services required and 
the compensation given. If anything else was thought to be 
desirable in the way of protection to either party, it was in- 
corporated in the contract upon a mutual understanding. 

A form of the indenture contract is submitted. It is a 
form preserved by Mr. Neil in his "Virginia Carolorum," and 
is taken as being typical of those generally in use at that time. 
A farmer of Surrey county, England, contracts and binds him- 
self to a citizen, an ironmonger in London, as follows: 

"To continue an obedient servant of him, the said Ed- 
ward Hurd, and his heirs and assigns, and so by him or them 
sente, transported unto the colony and land of Virginia, in 
the parts beyond the seas, to be by him or them imployed on 
his plantation there for th e space of four years, and will be 
tractable and obedient and good and faithful, pnyst to be in 
such things as shall be commanded him. In consideration 



Ii8 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

thereof the said Edward Hurd doth covenant that he will 
transport and furnish to the said Logwood, to and for Vir- 
ginia aforesaid, and allow unto him sustenance, meat, drink, 
and apparel and other necessities for his livelihood and sus- 
tenance during the said services." 

The phase of the indenture system that gave most trou- 
ble, and about which there was most legislation on the part of 
the General Assembly, was the term of years for which the 
indenture was to last. At first, in the absence of any stipu- 
lated time in the contract, the rule was that the indenture 
should last for a period of four years. If the age of a ser- 
vant was in excess of twenty-one years, the term of inden- 
ture was four years; if under that age, five years; and seven 
years if under the age of twelve. This rule was changed in 
1654, especially as far as aliens were concerned. When these 
came into the colony without formal indenture they were re- 
quired, if more than sixteen years old, to serve for a term of 
six years; if under that age, he was to serve until he was 
twenty-four years of age. This seems to have been unfavor- 
able to the increase of emigration, and the rule was some- 
what modified later. 

The construction of the contracts of indenture were usu- 
ally made with careful regard to the rights of the servant, 
and the authorities were scrupulous usually in seeing that the 
parts of the agreement having to do with the personal care 
and treatment of the servant were fully and satisfactorily 
carried out; and while there may have been some isolated 
cases of serious imposition on the part of the master, in the 
main the agreements entered into were honorably observed. 
Indeed, so great was the demand for labor of this sort that 
it behooved the masters, on grounds of sheer expediency, to 
maintain in all particulars the agreements entered into. Or- 
dinarily, the servants were well fed, securely housed and com- 



LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 119 

fortably clothed. A comparison made between this class of 
laborers in the colonies and even the better class of laborers 
in the old country would, in things most essential, be greatly 
to the advantage of the Virginia servants. 

Next to the matter of the term of service, trouble was 
had with the younger indentured servants in their disposition 
to run away. While very heavy penalties were inflicted upon 
these runaways and upon those harboring them, the author- 
ities were always careful to inquire whether there was any 
reason for dissatisfaction with the treatment they received 
at the hands pf their masters. There is in the records of 
lower Norfolk county an account of an incident in which a 
boy had frequently run away from his mistress and sought 
refuge with a good woman in the neighborhood. A com- 
plaint was made in his behalf, and the magistrate directed 
that he should remain in the house unto which he had fled 
until his case was looked into ; and their final verdict was 
that he should remain there until his mistress should give her 
consent to provide him with food, clothing and other neces- 
sities which the evidence showed she had denied him. A 
committee was appointed to see that this verdict of the court 
was carried out, and when it was ascertained that she con- 
tinued in her harsh treatment of the boy, he was taken away 
entirely from her possession. 

The usual penalty for running away was to double the 
time of service agreed upon in the contract of indenture, and 
also to pay the amount expended in the capture and return 
of the runaway. In addition to this it was sometimes al- 
lowed that the runaway be whipped. There were numerous 
laws made by the Assembly with reference to runaway ser- 
vants. Considering the character of many of the indentured 
servants it is remarkable that there were no serious outbreaks 
among them. 



120 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Another source of serious trouble with the indentured 
servants was the matter of marriage, especially secret mar- 
riage. It became necessary to pass an act that before any 
legal ceremony might be performed both parties to the mar- 
riage contract should present the written consent of their 
respective masters. This law was made necessary on ac- 
count of the confusion that inevitably followed the marrying 
where there were different masters involved. The penalty 
attached to the violation of this law was the extension of the 
term of the husband's service for twelve months, while the 
term of extension of the wife's service was to be twice the 
time set forth in the original contract. The clergymen were 
strictly prohibited from announcing the bans of this class of 
people or from joining them in marriage without first having 
received the signed certificates indicating the consent of their 
masters. 

All the evidence seems to indicate that usually the kind- 
est relations existed between the master and servant. At the 
close of the seventeenth century the sentiment in the colonv 
was always kindly disposed toward the servants in every 
matter of difference and discontent. No master was per- 
mitted to whip a white servant on the naked back until spe- 
cial permission had been granted by the court, and if he in- 
sisted upon doing so without the magistrate's authority, he 
was fined twenty shillings. The justices of the peace were 
by law compelled to receive all complaints of servants touch- 
ing the matters of food, clothing and lodging, and medical 
services in case of sickness. If there was any suspicion that 
the justices themselves were disposed to be partial to the 
land owners rather than to the servant, it was permitted the 
servant to file a petition in the County Court immediately, not 
waiting for the delay of a formal process of action. 

There was also careful provision made for the improve- 



LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 121 

ment of the religious and moral lives of the servants. By a 
provision in the laws of the colony the masters were respon- 
sible for their instruction in the catechism, and were com- 
pelled to send them to the nearest church before the evening 
service to be taught by the minister of the parish the Ten 
Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. 

As a rule a white woman did not labor in the fields, but 
her services were confined to doing domestic functions. Only 
when she was thoroughly disreputable was she required to 
perform labor in the fields. 

The hours of service for indentured servants were from 
sunrise to sunset, but with intermissions at the noon hour 
for dinner, and a longer intermission of four or five hours 
when the sun became oppressive, especially in the new 
grounds that were being cleared. The scarcity of labor al- 
ways made it expedient for the masters to give the servants 
such kindly and wholesome care and treatment as would pre- 
serve their strength and enable them to do the best possible 
work. 

When the term for which the servant had been indentured 
•expired, there were certain privileges allowed him, which, if 
taken advantage of, established him most auspiciously for a 
new career. Under the first regulation of the London Com- 
pany at the expiration of a term of service there was given to 
each one hundred acres of land, and when this was occupied 
each was entitled to another one hundred acres. Those who 
were bound for a term of years came to their freedom under 
circumstances even more propitious and promising. They 
were allowed corn for twelve months and a house in which 
to live, and were presented with clothing and a cow. They 
could have all the land that they were able to cultivate, and 
wer e furnished with all the implements necessary in their 
work. All this was allowed for a term of seven years. Dur- 



122 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

ing that time one-half of all the increase from his crops and 
from the cattle was allowed each servant, and a tract of 
twenty-five acres at an insignificant rent of two pence per 
annum. 

The question has often been agitated as to what extent 
the complexion of these early communities was fixed by the 
presence of so large a class of servants. The facts seem to 
be that while there were, not a few honorable exceptions, that 
this class of people failed to rise to any influential place in 
the community. The more thrifty of them found for them- 
selves small farms where they led quiet and useful lives. 
Most of them, however, by an inevitable law of social gravi- 
tation, occupied a lower place in the society of the day. 
Bishop Meade may be quoted as saying this with reference 
to the descendants of this class of people : 

"The lower order of persons in Virginia, in a great meas- 
ure, sprang from those apprenticed servants and from poor 
exiled culprits. It is not wonderful that there should have 
been much debasement of character among the poorest popu- 
lation, and that the negroes of th e first families should always 
have considered themselves to be a more respectable class. 
To this day there are many who look upon poor white folks 
(for so they call them) as much beneath themselves, and in 
truth they are so in many respects." 

The agitation of the question as to the descent pf some 
of the old families of Virginia from the class of indentured 
servants is scarcely worth seriously considering. We quote 
from a New England historian, Mr. Fiske, who could not pos- 
sibly rest under suspicion of partiality when he said : 

"Nothing can be more certain than that the representa- 
tive families of Virginia were not descended from convicts or 
from indentured servants of any sort. The registered facts 
abundantly prove that the leading families had precisely the 



LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 12 



same sort of origin as the leading- families in New England. 
For the most part they were either country squires, yeoman 
or craftsmen from the numerous urban guilds, and alike in 
Virginia and in New England there was the same propor- 
tion of persons connected with English families, ennobled or 
otherwise eminent for public service." 

There were two features of the indenture system that 
caused it to fall into disfavor with the planters. First, the 
character of the laborers was a very serious drawback and 
menace to the peace of the community, and long before the 
end of the seventeenth century both Virginia and Maryland 
began to protest against the policy of dumping the criminal 
class upon their shores. It was realized that if the demands 
for labor were ever satisfied by reinforcements from this class 
of men that their number would be so great as to seriously 
threaten the colony. 

The second source of dissatisfaction was lodged in the 
frequent expirations of the terms of indenture service. It was 
a matter of constant and anxious solicitude on the planters' 
part as to how they were to supply the places of those whose 
term of service was about to expire. Many of those whose 
terms had expired, would, to be sure, remain as tenants and 
continue in the service of the planters, but a sufficient num- 
ber sought to establish themselves upon places of their own, 
to make it difficult to have their places supplied. It was al- 
most impossible for any stability to be maintained in the ser- 
vice of the colony under such a system. 

These two considerations contributed greatly to the estab- 
lishment of African slavery. As a usual thing the African 
was docile and could be controlled without any very great 
difficulty. For the sort pf work required in the cultivation 
of tobacco, they were especially adapted. Already the culti- 
vation of tobacco in Spain had made demonstration of this 



I2 4 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

fact, and as Spain was the competitor of Virginia in the pro- 
duction and sale of tobacco, the Virginia planter began to 
realize that unless a more stable and reliable form of service 
could be introduced, that they would be at a very serious dis- 
advantage in the competition for the trade in tobacco. Thus 
it came to be, in the course of years, the conviction of the 
Virginia planter that if the cultivation of tobacco was to con- 
tinue, and to be enlarged as the demand for it increased, a 
more docile and a more stable form of service must be em- 
ployed. 

1619 marks the date of the bringing of the negro to the 
American continent. By John Rolfe it was recorded that 
"about the last of August there came in a Dutch man-of-war 
that sold us twenty negars." It seems that this first cargo of 
slaves was brought to the colony without any premeditation 
or concert of action on the part of anyone. It was a venture 
of the master of the Dutch vessel, possibly at the suggestion 
of Argall, with whose privateering ship, The Treasure, he 
had been thrown for a little while cruising off the Spanish 
coast. There were twenty of these first slaves. They were 
distributed among the various settlements, the most of them, 
it is said, being held by Governor Yeardley on the company's 
lands. In the five years following 1619 there was an increase 
of only two in the number of African slaves in the colony. 
The census of the population taken in i624-'25 showed the 
presence of twenty-two, as compared with the twenty that 
had been introduced into the colony five years before. One 
of these two additional slaves was brought in by The Treas- 
ure in 1619, and the other had come in a vessel called The 
Swan in 1623. Two children were included in this census. 
Their ages are not recorded, and it is impossible to say whether 
they were born in America or whether they were included in 
the original twenty brought in 1619. In the fearful massacre 



LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 125 

pf 1622 none of the negroes were killed. This in all proba- 
bility is to be attributed to the manner of their distribution 
m the colony. It will be remembered that Jamestown es- 
caped this massacre, while the upper settlements, especially 
the "Fleur De Hundred" suffered most grievously. Many of 
the negroes still remained at Jamestown, and probably their 
exemption from the slaughter grows out of that fact. Five 
years after the census of 1624-25, an addition to the African 
slave population was made by the ship Fortune. The entire 
cargo was sold for eighty-five hogsheads of tobacco. These 
slaves were distributed immediately and with very little 
trouble. 

For the first half of the seventeenth century all the slaves 
introduced into the colony were brought in this desultory- 
fashion. There was no organized or systematic effort in that 
direction; only occasionally, without any advanced agreement 
or contract, one ship after another would drop in and dispose 
of its cargo, which, in most instances, it had captured while 
on privateering voyages. 

The first exclusive right to conduct the slave traffic was 
granted by the English Government i n 1618 to the Earl of 
Warwick and those associated with him. In 1631 another 
charter was granted by Charles I. to an organization that 
made systematic and elaborate preparations for traffic in ne- 
groes along the Guinea coast. As far as Virginia was con- 
cerned, the number of slaves brought in by this company was 
very small. For a space of eighteen years after this charter 
had been secured by this company, the number of slaves in 
the col'ony, all told, was not over three hundred. Thirty years 
had now passed since the first slaves were landed in 1619, so 
that in all probability a good proportion of these three hun- 
dred may be attributed to the natural increase of the popula- 
tion. Quite a number, however, had been introduced by plant- 



126 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

ers or ship owners, who availed themselves" of the principle 
of the head right. The records show that Mr. Richard Ben- 
net was the first to avail himself of this head right law, and 
took out a patent in the office of the Registrar at Richmond 
for fifty acres to be allowed him for the importation of the 
slave "Angela," landed by the ship Fortune. From this be- 
ginning, for every slave imported into the colony their owners 
sought the privilege and reward of the head right. In many 
instances the patents of land thus granted ran into the thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of acres. 

It will be seen from this slow importation of negroes that 
the institution of slavery in the colony up to the last of the 
seventeenth century was, on the whole, rather insignficant. 
Even in 1663, forty-four years or nearly a half a century after 
the importation of the first slaves, there were only about 1,500 
negroes in the colony, and it was 1670 before it had risen to 
the number of 2,000. 

In 1672 another charter was granted to the Royal African 
Company, that was destined to become the agency for the 
transporting of a large number of slaves to America. It was 
some years, however, before the population was perceptibly 
increased. The period of discontent, from 1670 to 1680, which 
was characterized by the rebellion under Bacon, was discour- 
aging to the importation of the slave. 

At the end of the seventeenth century it is estimated that 
the entire African population in the colony amounted to only 
about six thousand. When one considers the fact that many 
of these must have been by natural increase, it will be easily 
seen that the importation of negroes from Africa was exceed- 
ingly slow, and that they came in squads and groups, at no 
time in any large numbers. At first they were brought to the 
colony in vessels sailing under the Dutch flag. Later on New 
England merchants became interested in the slave traffic, and 



'LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. I2J> 

perhaps in the vessels manned by New Engenders the larger 
number of African slaves were introduced into the colonies. 

After the beginning of the eighteenth century the im- 
portation of slaves was greatly accelerated. They were dis- 
tributed as the peculiar conditions of each colony demanded, 
the conditions of life in the more northern colonies being such 
as not to require this particular form of service. Many Afri- 
cans were imported and employed, and by the time of the 
Revolution there were negro slaves in all the American colo- 
nies. In the southern colonies the number of slaves in some 
instances equalled the entire white population. In Virginia 
the census indicated that the population was about equally 
divided, being something like 250,000 white population and 
250,000 negro slave population. 

There is no indication that during all this term of years 
anybody's conscience was especially disturbed. The northern 
and New England colonies were altogether as innocent of 
qualms of conscience as were the southern colonies. The 
truth is that the Africans were looked upon as so much chat- 
tel, to be sold and bought, fed and clothed, taxed and kept as 
other cattle and beasts were. When the question of the 
religious standing of the African was raised, the answer came 
from many quarters that really they were not morally re- 
sponsible beings ; that they were either merely animal, or so 
little removed from that estate as to have no responsibility 
and no capacity in moral and spiritual things. A certain elect 
lady of the Barbadoes, herself said to be very pious and 
saintly, is reported by Mr. Godwyn to have said "that he 
might as well baptize puppies as negroes." This ought not 
to be taken as an expression of the sentiment prevailing in 
Virginia. The views of the slave owners in the West Indies 
were less advanced and less humane than they were in Vir- 
ginia. Even in Virginia, however, it was not clear as to just 



128 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

how far the negro was capable of religion, and, therefore, to 
what extent they should be accorded religious privileges and 
to what extent it was necessary to be exercised over the mat- 
ter of his salvation. The question was somewhat complicated 
by the notion that to make a Christian of him was to com- 
pel that he be treated as one Christian should treat another. 
This particular perplexity was settled by an act of the House 
of Burgesses, which declared that submission to the rites of 
the church did not emancipate the slave. The following 
action was taken by the House of Burgesses in 1667: 

"Whereas, Some doubts have risen whether children who 
are slaves by birth, and by the charity and piety of their 
owners, made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptism, 
should, by virtue of their baptism be made free : It is enacted 
and declared by this Grand Assembly and the authorities 
thereof, that the conferring of baptism doth not alter the con- 
dition of the person as to his bondage or freedom ; that divers 
masters freed from this doubt may more carefully endeavor 
the propagation of Christianity by permitting children, though 
slaves, or those of greater growth if capable, to be admitted 
by that sacrament." 

It is a fact to which Mr. Bruce calls attention, that one 
of the two African children included in the census of 1624-25 
was entered in the general list as having received baptism, 
and this incident was transacted fifty years before the treatise 
of Mr. Godwyn. 

In the year 1661 there was sent out from the Council for 
Foreign Plantations a communication to the authorities in 
the colonies of Virginia and the Barbadoes, asking that min- 
isters of the gospel who would give themselves especially to 
the work of evangelizing the ne^gro, should be brought into 
the colonies as soon as possible, and that these ministers be 



LABOR SYSTEM OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 129 

enjoined to give themselves assiduously to the preparation 
of the African for the rites of baptism. 

As time wore on and the two peoples were brought into 
more intimate relations, skepticism yielded to an almost unani- 
mous conviction that, after all, the Africans were human ; 
laboring, to be sure, under some serious disabilities. The 
theological consensus was, that the negro was salvable; and 
as much consideration was had for his religious life as cir- 
cumstances in those days would seem to allow. Certain it is 
that in an incredibly short time the negro became evangelized 
almost en masse. In. the light of after events the institution 
of slavery must be considered as the mightiest evangelical 
agency that has ever been employed in the effort to convert 
the world to Christianity. Though we do not suppose that 
the pious Dutchman and the saintly Puritans of New England 
who brought them to these shores, or the godly Cavaliers of 
Virginia who bought them and kept them, will arrogate to 
themselves credit for so glorious a consummation ; seeing that 
the evangelical motive was exceedingly remote in these early 
transactions connected with the institution of slavery. 

It ought to. be remembered that while not very vociferous 
or insistent, here and there were voices even in the South 
lifted against the continuation and perpetuation of the insti- 
tution. Such men as Mr. Mason uttered sentiments s'o harsh 
and extravagant as almost to discount the boldest utterances 
cf the most rantankerous New England abolitionist. It is 
worth while remembering that the sentiment entertained by 
Mr. Jefferson and the governmental principles touching this 
matter submitted by him were very nearly in accord with the 
sentiments and principles of government entertained by Abra- 
ham Lincoln, and upon which he was elevated to the Presi- 
dency of these United States. 

This much may be truly said, that the nearest approach to 



1 3 o COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

unanimity of opinion with regard to the institution of slavery 
that ever has prevailed in this country was in the first century 
cf its existence ; and that that opinion was favorable to its 
establishment and perpetuation. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE FIRST AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY 
AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE. 

After the London Company had secured its second char- 
ter in 1609, there were introduced a great many new stock- 
holders ; among them the Archbishop of Canterbury, six 
bishops, twenty-four earls, twenty-eight lords, two hundred 
and seventy-four knights of the shire, and many gentlemen 
and merchants, making number of stockholders for 1609 to 
1619 reach a total of 1,375. While these gentlemen added 
very much to the social standing of the company, they did 
not add extensively to its financial betterment and equip- 
ment. The company had already expended something like 
eleven million dollars on the enterprise, and had had no re- 
turns whatever for this vast outlay. In spite of the expen- 
diture of such a large sum of money, and the endurance 
of much suffering and hardship and the loss of hundreds of 
lives, there were, in 1612, scarcely more than four hundred 
settlers in the colony proper, although when Dale first came 
over there had been a much larger population, due to the 
many adventurers who came at about the same time. Under 
these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that it was 
•exceedingly difficult to procure financial support for the 
maintenance of the colony. In the emergency a lottery was 
resorted to, making thus a popular appeal to all classes of 
people. Whether this doubtful measure was a financial suc- 
cess or not, it was at least a fine advertisement of the en- 

131 



132 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

terprise, and to the expedient no objection was raised. In 
fact, it seems to have been accepted as a perfectly legitimate 
and proper financial policy. 

If the gentlemen constituting the last large addition to 
the stockholders of the company were not responsive to ap- 
peals for money, they were in the main broadminded and 
patriotic, and yielded themselves to persuasions as to a more 
liberal policy in the government of the colony. It is not 
definitely known why George Yeardley was asked in 1617 
to surrender to Samuel Argall the government of the colony 
after so short a term as one year's service, but there is reason 
to believe that it was for the good of the colony itself that he 
returned to England just at the time he did. He was in a 
position to state or to present the real needs of the settle- 
ments. There can be no doubt but that his presentation of 
the matter largely influenced the company in its new policy. 
He found, on his return, the company already prepared for 
such suggestions and counsels as he was m'ost competent to 
give. 

The company had already determined to grant to every 
settler fifty acres of land as his own private property. Thus 
the communistic system, which had involved the earlier poli- 
cies of the colony, was broken down. Later on, with increas- 
ing libertlity, the allotment of land was increased from fifty 
acres to one hundred acres, offered to all new settlers. For 
this advanced step, be it remembered, the wise and vigorous 
management of Governor Dale was preparatory. 

It was while on this visit Yeardley was knighted by the 
King. It was an unusual honor for one of so humble birth, 
for he was only a son of a merchant tailor. It was, no doubt, 
bestowed upon him as a token of the King's favor, but the 
notion that one in the high office to which he had been 
elected would be lacking in equipment if he did not wear 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSEMBLY. 133 

some such title, must have had considerable influence in pro- 
curing the honor. The spirit of the day was such that it 
would have been difficult fori him to have secured to himself 
the measure of esteem and respect required by his office if 
he had not been thus honored and elevated by the royal favor. 

It was on the recall of Argall, whose shameless manage- 
ment of the colony had become a scandal even in England, 
that Yeardley was appointed Governor as his successor. He 
was sent put under a commission giving him large freedom 
and powers for the inauguration of a liberal administration. 
Spread of the good news in England that Virginia was hence- 
forth to be governed on broad principles caused settlers to 
flock to the colony, and in a little while the population had 
grown to be about two thousand. 

The most surprising and far reaching in their influence of 
the instructions that Yeardley carried back with him to Vir- 
ginia was the granting of the right to establish in the colony 
such government as would be best for the inhabitants. Yeard- 
ley had not been long in the colony after his return before 
he announced that he, on the authority of the London Com- 
pany, had decided to establish a General Assembly in which 
the representatives of the colony would hereafter frame the 
laws that should govern the colony. This Assembly was to 
be composed of the Governor, his council, and two repre- 
sentatives from each of the scattered plantations. There 
were eleven of these plantations, and two representaives from 
each would make an Assembly of twenty-two representatives 
coming directly from the people. The plantations at the time 
of the organization of the Assembly were as follows: James 
City, Charles City, City of Henricos, Kiccowtan, Brandon, 
Martin's Plantation, Smyth's Hundred, Martin's Hundred, 
Argall's Gift, Flower de Hundred, Captain Lawne's Planta- 
tion and Captain Ward's Plantation. 



134 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Following - the announcement of Governor Yeardley the 
election of representatives from the different plantations duly 
occurred. On the 30th day of July, 1619, the Assembly met 
at Jamestown. It was composed of the following members: 

Governor Yeardley was present as the head of the colony. 
It is interesting to note that he was the first cousin of the 
step-father of John Harvard, the founder of Harvard Uni- 
versity. It is said that his religious views were not widely 
different from those entertained by the Puritans of New 
England. The members of the council, by virtue of their 
office, were also members of this General Assembly. Of 
these was Captain Francis West, a son of Sir Thomas West, 
and second Lord Delaware. He was president of the coun- 
cil and had command of the fort at the falls on the James 
River, and had planted a plantation at West Hundred, known 
afterward as Westover He is said to have been a direct 
descendant of William the Conqueror. He had agreed with 
Clayborne in his opposition to the settlement of Maryland by 
Lord Baltimore. Captain Nathaniel Powell, also a member 
of the council, was one of the party that explored the Chesa- 
peake Bay with John Smith. He and his wife were both 
killed in the Indian massacre of 1622. John Rolfe, a mem- 
ber of the council, the husband of Pocahontas, and the first 
promoter of the cultivation of tobacco. He had recently re- 
turned to Virginia, after the death of his young wife at 
Gravesend, England. The Rev. William Wickham, a mem- 
ber of the council, sat in the Assembly. It is said of him 
that he was a man of wide culture and liberal views. Cap- 
tain Samuel Maycock, likewise a member of the council, was 
a graduate of Cambridge University, and stood high in the 
esteem of his contemporaries. John Pory, the sixth mem- 
ber of the council, was secretary of the colony, and was also 
a graduate of Cambridge. He was an especial friend of Hak- 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSEMBLY. 135 

luyt's, and had at one time sat in the English Parliament. 
He had done some exploring - , and had gone up the Nile as 
far as an inland lake in Abyssinia. The only copy of the 
proceedings of this first General Assembly pf America is 
preserved in the British Record office, and is in the hand- 
writing of John Pory. 

The representatives from the plantations were as follows: 
James City sent Captain William Powell and Ensign William 
Spence. It was to Captain Powell that a friendly Indian re- 
vealed the plot of 1622, and he was afterwards active in the 
pursuit and slaughter of the Indians. He was finally killed 
by the Indians on the Chickahominy River in 1623. 

Charles City sent Samuel Sharp and Samuel Jordan Jor- 
dan died in 1623, and left a widow whose name was Cicely. 
Mr. Jordan had not been dead many weeks before the charm- 
ing Cicely began to take notice in a very surprising manner 
and allowed herself, doubtless owing to the confusion caused 
by her great grief for her departed husband, to become en- 
gaged to two gentlemen at the same time — the Rev. Gren- 
ville Ppoley and Mr. William Ferrar. Each insisting upon 
the right of her hand, and she apparently unwilling to arbi- 
trate between the two, the case was taken before the council, 
which, refusing to designate the favored gentleman, with 
consummate discretion, the affair was referred to the com- 
pany in London. Which of the insistent gentlemen finally 
succeeded to the place of the lamented Jordan in the widow's 
heart and home, by some strange oversight, history does not 
seem to record. One of the two representatives from Flower 
de Hundred was Mr. Jefferson, with whom Thomas Jefferson 
claimed relationship. One of the delegates from Smyth's 
Hundred, Walter Shelley, probably a relative of the poet, died 
suddenly on Sunday, August 1st, in the midst of the Assem- 
bly. 



136 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

On the day appointed for the meeting of the Assembly 
the Governor went in state to the church selected as the place 
of meeting with a guard of halberdiers dressed in the Gov- 
ernor's livery. He was attended by the councillors and fol- 
lowed by the twenty-two newly elected delegates. 

The first meeting place of the Assembly was in the third 
of the church buildings that had been erected in the colony 
during the administration of Captain Samuel Argall. It is 
interesting to note here that from 1619 to 1698, the years 
during which the Assembly met at Jamestown, there were 
four different State houses in which the meetings of the body 
were held. Each of these was destroyed in turn by fire. In 
the interim between these disasters the body met in various 
and sundry places, sometimes in the church, sometimes in 
convenient taverns, and sometimes in the Governor's house. 

The church building occupied by the first General As- 
sembly is said to have been well lighted within, and well 
adapted to uses of the Assembly, and, upon the order of the 
Governor, was made passing sweet and trimmed with divers 
flowers. The meeting is described as follows by the Speaker 
in his report to the London Company: 

"The moste convenient place we could find to sitt in was 
the Quire of the Church where Sir George Yeardley, the Gov- 
ernor, sett downe in his accustomed place, those of the Coun- 
cil of estate sate next him on both handes, except only the 
Secretary, then appointed Speaker, who sate right before him, 
John Twine, clerke of the General Assembly, being placed 
next the Speaker, and Thomas Pierse, the Sergeant, standing 
at the barre, to be ready for any service the Assembly should 
commaand him. But for as much as men's affaires doe little 
prosper where God's service is neglected, all the Burgesses 
tooke their places in the Quire until a prayer was said by 
Mr. Bucke, the Minister, that it shall please God to guide and 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSEMBLY. 137 

sanctifie all our proceedings to His own glory and to the good 
of this plantation. Prayer being ended, to the intente that 
as we had begun at God Almighty, so we might proceed with 
awful and due respecte toward the Lieutenant, our most gra- 
tious and dreaded Soveraigne, all the Burgesses were in- 
treated to retyre themselves into the body of the Churche, 
which being done, before they were fully admitted, they were 
called in order and by name, and so every man (none stag- 
gering at it) tooke the Oathe of Supremacy." 

Mr. Bucke, the minister who conducted the religious devo- 
tiiO as of this first Assembly, was the minister in charge at 
JaMestown, and for whose special use the building in which 
the Assembly met had been erected. He was reputed to be 
a man of good culture and fine character. 

For a long time the proceedings of this first Assembly 
were lost, and it is a matter of pride to Americans that it was 
Mr. Bancroft who discovered them in the British Record Of- 
fice in London, in the form of a synopsis of the proceedings 
that had been reported to the London Company by John Pory. 
The manuscript contains thirty-two folio pages, and was re- 
printed in the Senate Documents of Virginia by the Legis- 
lature of 1874, and is now a volume very rare. 

According to Pory's account the first formal action of the 
Assembly after it organized was the reading of instructions 
under which Governor Yeardley was acting. Next came a 
number of petitions that were to be sent to the General Coun- 
cil of the Company in London. One of these petitions de- 
manded that the patent to Captain Martin be withdrawn be- 
cause contrary to all usages so far as Virginia was con- 
cerned (he had been made lord of his manor), the petition 
insisting that no man should be allowed rights which sus- 
pended for him the operation of Virginia laws. ifThe insist- 
ence was equality of all men before the law and the suprem- 



138 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

acy of the laws of the colony. For this reason the Burgesses 
sitting as the representatives of Captain Martin's patent were 
denied the right to participate in the acts of the Assembly. 
Another petition to the London Company asked that the 
lands already granted by patent should not be taken from 
the settlers in the allotment of land to the Governor. They 
petitioned further that the company should send tenants at 
once for the glebe lands. They also petitioned that all in- 
habitants of Virginia should be put upon an equal footing 
with reference to the granting of lands, providing that a 
single share be granted to the male children born in Virginia, 
and also to their wives, because that "in a new plantation it 
is not known whether man or woman be the most necessary." 
They asked that a treasurer, resident in Virginia, be appointed 
to collect the rents of the London Company, and finally they 
petitioned that "toward the erection of a university or col- 
lege, they should send, when they think most convenient, 
workmen of all sorts fit for that purpose." For some reason 
there was evident dissatisfaction with the savage name of 
"Kiccowtan," and they petitioned for a change of the name. 
The place was afterwards called Hampton. Whether by the 
direction of the authorities or no, the name still remains and 
is held until this day. 

A study of the legislative acts of this first Assembly will 
reveal the fact that the first lawmakers of our country took 
themselves very seriously. They legislated along many lines 
and in much detail. They assumed the care of nearly every 
phase of colonial life, religious, civic, racial and domestic, and 
even ventured into the private life of the individual. It should 
be remembered, however, that these early lawmakers were 
dealing with crude and primitive conditions, and that they 
were legislating not for the twentieth century, under an ad- 
vanced civilization, but for the seventeenth century, under 






THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSEMBLY. 139 

exceptional conditions. They were making- laws for them- 
selves, living under conditions very different from their broth- 
ers in England. And yet in all their legislation there ap- 
pears an absolute sincerity of purpose and a moral earnest- 
ness that is most refreshing in this day of complicated and 
elaborate law making. If they undertook to regulate matters 
that seem to us tor be removed from the legitimate sphere of 
their control, we are impressed with the fact that they were 
actuated with good motives and controlled by good common 
sense. 

The practical good sense of Virginia's first lawmakers 
is not more in evidence anywhere than in their legislation 
touching intemperance. They put the onus of blame and 
responsibility upon the man who drank to excess. There 
is in this an elemental congruity that appeals to one's 
sense of simple and unmixed justice. It differs widely from 
modern temperance legislation in that it is now sought to 
place the responsibility everywhere except upon the man 
who permits himself to become debauched. They passed 
laws to the effect that a man found drunk, for the first of- 
fense should be reproved in private by the minister ; for the 
second offense he was to be reproved in public ; for the third 
offense the Governor was to take the place of the minister 
and administer reproof; and in case of a fourth offense, the 
Governor was given full authority to inflict such punish- 
ment as in his judgment the case seemed to require. In the 
matter of temperance they sought by wise legislation to in- 
sure the purity of liquors, enforcing heavy penalties whore 
these stuffs were too greatly diluted or adulterated by the 
admixture of other ingredients. It was also sought to protect 
the man disposed to run up his credit at the tavern, by pass- 
ing a law that in case the tavern keeper seemed to be guilty 
of too great encouragement in extending his credit, that under 



i 4 o COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

certain conditions and after certain lapses of time his account 
would be worthless before the law. 

The Assembly sought among its first acts to regulate the 
matter of wearing apparel, and in this legislation there is alsq 
an appeal to one's sense of elemental justice. It was pro- 
vided that every man should be assessed to support the church 
according to the quality of clothes he wore. If he were un- 
married, according to his own apparel ; if married, according 
not only to those of his own, but to that of his wife's apparel 
as well. There seems here to be unusual common sense, as 
it appears in simple justice that one should be willing to oon^ 
tribute to the church in the same spirit of liberality with 
which one conducts his own private and domestic affairs. 

The legislation of the New England Puritans is often cited 
as an example of narrowness and intolerance. Even a casual 
study will reveal the fact that the work of the lawmakers in 
both sections really did not differ very widely. There was 
the same interference and intolerance in religious matters; 
there was the same unproportionate severity in the enforce- 
ment of penalties for what in our day seem to be trivial of- 
fenses; there was the same meddling with private affairs and 
habits of the individual. 

This first Assembly passed a law concerning swearing in 
the colony. One found guilty of this offense, after having 
been three times admonished, was fined five shillings for 
every offense, the fine going into the treasury of the church. 
All persons were required to attend divine service on Sunday, 
the men being required to come with their firearms. No 
other service except that conducted by a minister of the 
Church of England was tolerated, it being many years later 
before other forms of religious services were permitted. 

The laws regarding the relation of the settlers to the In- 
dians were in great detail, and sought to govern every phase 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSEMBLY. 141 

of contact with the aborigines. They were permitted to trade 
and barter with the Indians, but they could not sell them 
hoes, dogs, shot, powder, firearms, or other implements which 
might accrue to the advantage of the Indian in case of con- 
flict. If shot, powder or firearms were sold to them, the 
penalty for such refraction of the law was death. No man 
was permitted to go into the Indian country and remain 
ionger than seven days without a formal leave of absence 
from the Governor. 

However, the first Assembly showed a genuine concern 
for the welfare of the aborigines. A law was passed looking 
to the education and Christianizing of the Indians, and a 
bonus was offered to every plantation which should seek to 
educate and to convert the Indian youth to the Christian re- 
ligion. 

Laws were passed undertaking to regulate the economics 
of the settlement. The time for planting corn and mulberry 
trees, the making of silk, the raising of hemp, the cultivation 
of grapes and other fruits, the control of tenants and runaway 
servants, the price of tobacco and its use as a current coin 
of the realm, were all matters of painstaking legislation. 

The Assembly seemed to discharge not only legislative 
functions, but certain judicial ones as well. For example, 
they heard the complaint of Captain William Powell against 
one Thomas Garnet, a servant, and found him guilty of ob- 
scene and unbecoming behavior, and had him nailed by the 
ears to a pillory for four days, flogging him besides on each 
day. Captain Henry Spellman, by vote of the Assembly, was 
degraded from his title as captain because he had spoken to 
the old Indian chief, Opechancannough, in a disrespectful and 
unbecoming language with reference to the Governor of the 
colony. 

Early in the acts of the Assembly could be discovered 



142 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the restless spirit that reached out aforetime for emancipation 
from the control of the mother country. One of the most re- 
markable, significant and prophetic things in the action of 
this Assembly was the courage with which they ventured 
to ask that they might have the right to pass their own laws 
without the interference and supervision on the part of the 
London Company. The first Assembly passed the following 
significant resolution : 

"The General Assembly doth humbly beseeche saide treas- 
urer, counsell and company, that albeit it belongeth to them 
Only to allow or abrogate any lawes which we shall here make 
and that it is their right so to doe, as these lawes which we 
have nowa brought to light, to passe current and be of force 
till suche time as we may knowe, and further pleasures out of 
England in, for otherwise this people (who nowe at last have 
gotten the rains of former servitude into their own swindge) 
wpuld in short time grow so insolent as that they would shake 
off all government and there would be no living among them. 
Our next humble suite is that the saide counsell and company 
would be pleased, so soon as they shall find it convenient, to 
make good their promise set them at the conclusion of their 
commission for establishing the counsell of a state and the 
General Assembly, namely, that they will give us the power 
to allow or disallow all their orders of courts as His Majesty 
hath given them power to allow or reject our lawes." 

Here indeed is the ominous suggestion of that infinite 
'struggle, the glorious consummation of which was emancipa- 
tion from British rule, and the establishment of American 
independence. 

The requests that they be granted the privilege to disal- 
low the orders of the London Company in Virginia must have 
seemed exceedingly presumptuous and impertinent, and yet 
from this position taken at the outset, to be sure not with 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSEMBLY. 143 

any very great definiteness or clearness, the Virginians never 
departed. As early as 1624 they declared that the "Governor 
shall not lay any tax or impositions upon the colony, their 
lands or commodities, other than by the authority of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, to be levied on employed as the said Assem- 
bly shall appoint." These are almost the precise words used 
five years later by the English Parliament in its petition of 
rights to Charles I. The same principle was re-enacted in 
1631, again in 1632, again in 1642, and still again in 1645, and 
again in the Articles of Agreement of 1652 between commis- 
sioners representing the Commonwealth of Engalnd and 
Cromwell and the "Grand Assembly of the Governor, Coun- 
cill and Burgesses" of Virginia, in which articles are found 
these words : "That Virginia shall be free from all taxes, cus- 
toms and impositions whatsoever, and none to be imposed on 
them without consent of the Grand Assembly." In passing 
it is worthy of note that the term "General Assembly" was 
used till September, 1632, after which the term "Grand As- 
sembly" was used till 1680, when the former term was re- 
vived. It was also about this time that the General Assembly 
came to be composed of two distinct houses, the "Council" 
sitting as the upper house and the "Burgesses" as a lower 
house. It was the lower house, so often spoken of as the 
"House of Burgesses," that stood so firmly for the rights of 
the colonists. It was this body that gave Governor Berkeley 
to understand, in ways that could not be misconstrued, that 
no taxes whatever could be raised except by its approval. 
This claim Virginia never surrendered, and when the Stamp 
Act was passed in 1765, Patrick Henry in his famous Resolu- 
tions simply reiterated Virginia's position taken so many 
times before, when he declared "that the General Assembly 
of this colony have the sole right and power to lay taxes and 
impositions upon the inhabitants of this colony, and that 



144 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

every attempt to vest such power in any person or persons 
whatsoever other than the General Assembly aforesaid, has 
a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American 
freedom." 

From such expressions as these it is easy to see that the 
establishment of the first General Assembly was a vital and 
an important event in the history of Virginia and of America. 
Its establishment must be regarded as one of the results of 
the struggle extending through many years in England for 
popular rights. In the latter years of its existence the 
courts of the London Company came to be the arena in 
which were discussed with increasing boldness and frank- 
ness the divine rights of Kings. In those years there was 
an undisguised and persistent hatred of the Stuart King. 
The Liberal party in Parliament, always at deadly conflict 
with James I., had many representatives in the membership 
and control of the London Company, and when their voices 
were stifled in Parliament they found the courts of the Lon- 
don Company and the general atmosphere of the company's 
life most congenial and most favorable to free and frank 
utterance. This condition of things was the real reason why 
the charter was taken from the London Company, but the 
lines of battle had been already drawn, and while the London 
Company was hindered for a while in this splendid struggle 
for liberal principles, it had succeeded in establishing in Vir- 
ginia, under new and favorable conditions, an organization 
that was destined to continue the struggle and ultimately to 
win the great battle for popular rights. The House of Bur- 
gesses fought against the autocratic rule of the Governors, 
as the royal representatives in the colony, as seen in its atti- 
tude towards Berkeley, Spotswood and Culpeper. The spirit 
of this body caused the people to drive from the colony Dun- 
more, the last English Governor of Virginia. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN ASSEMBLY. 145 

It will be worth while to remember that the beginnings 
of American legislation and the first declaration of the rights 
of colonists to govern themselves were made before there was 
any other English settlement on American shores. It was 
from the loyal Jamestown settlement that there came first the 
crystallization of the spirit of the eighteenth century that 
demanded the right of self-government to all people. 



CHAPTER XI. 
TOBACCO. 

We may say as much as we please about J'ohn Smith and 
Pocahontas being the saviors of the Virginia Colony; it re- 
mains, however, a most unromantic fact that it was plain 
for the colony to have been maintained long enough to have 
taken permanent rootage on the new continent. There was 
made the colony possible. But for the finding of a paying 
Mr. John Rolfe and the noxious or fragrant Indian weed (the 
adjective depending upon one's personal taste) that really 
commercial commodity it would have been quite impossible 
scarcely a phase of the colonial life but that into* it tobacco 
entered most vitally. It was the determining factor in well- 
nigh every departure and exigency of the life of the colony. 
A Virginia writer, with very good ground, as we shall later 
see, has declared "that a true history of tobacco would be the 
history of English and American liberty." This seems an 
easy and a broad statement. It will be found, however, on in- 
vestigation, to be more nearly true than one is at first dis- 
posed to allow, for it is the economic factor that mainly de- 
termines forms of social and governmental life. 

It was the value of tobacco that first drew from Eng- 
land to Virginia the most substantial of its early settlers. 
Until tobacco was found to be a commercial commodity of 
value, Virginia really offered no substantial inducement to 
sober-thinking people to come to its shores. The level-headed 
and thoughtful man whose chief ambition was to mend and 

146 



TOBACCO. 147 

increase his fortune took little interest in the golden vagaries 
that allured the speculative and shiftless population. He was 
willing to pursue slower methods and to endure patient labor 
if his fortune might only be gradually augmented. When it 
was practically demonstrated that there was great profit in 
raising and marketing tobacco, a new interest was created in 
the Virginia experiment. For the first time the English yeo- 
men were enlisted in the enterprise and were tempted to cast 
their lots with the Virginia colonists. Hitherto the character 
of the population coming to Virginia had been mainly drawn 
from the top and from the bottom of England's population. 
Those at the top came with the expectation of finding im- 
mediately large fortunes in the discovery of gold and silver. 
They never had any serious idea of settling permanently on 
the American shores. It was their purpose, to be sure, to 
establish a permanent colony in Virginia, but it can scarcely 
be claimed that many of them ever seriously cherished the 
idea of remaining themselves as permanent residents in Vir- 
ginia. The other class scarcely knew why they came. They 
had no more idea than their superiors of remaining perma- 
nently in America. The same dream that actuated the lead- 
ers of the movement filtered down to the lowest class, where 
there was entertained the same hopes of the Eldorado. When, 
however, it became a fact that by the cultivation of tobacco 
permanent homes might be secured and possibly large for- 
tunes be realized, from the top, the bottom and the middle 
classes there began to appear those who planned seriously to 
establish themselves permanently in the new colony. Up to 
this time the bulk of the settlers had no individual or per- 
sonal resource at their command except in the way of labor 
and service. No capital was introduced into the colony ex- 
cept that which was held and furnished by the London Com- 
pany. But when it became clear that there was a chance 



148 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

for profitable investment in the cultivation of tobacco, men 
came from England who had accumulated, to a measure at 
least, small fortunes and were willing to venture them in 
the new experiment, and to make permanent homes in Vir- 
ginia. The results of this new departure were speedily dis- 
covered in the conduct of the affairs of the colony. No 
longer excited by the desire of making quick fortunes in the 
discovery of gold or silver, the colonists addressed them- 
selves intelligently and seriously to the ordering of all the 
affairs of the colony according to wise business methods. 

In the economy of the colony tobacco came to be the 
standard of values, and its yellow leaf was recognized as the 
current coin of the realm. A pound of tobacco became the 
unit of value. The prices of labor and all commodities were 
given as so many pounds of tobacco. All tributes and taxes 
were paid in tobacco. All salaries were paid in the same 
way, and by the pajmient of tobacco even the livings of the 
clergymen were secured. When maidens were brought over 
in 1619 to be the wives of the bachelors of the settlement, 
they were paid for in tobacco. It is easy to see how, in 
such fluctuations as were inevitable in a currency like this, 
distress was sure to come sooner or later. It was quite im- 
possible to make a stable currency out of a commodity sub- 
ject to so many changes of one sort and another. It was al- 
together impossible so to regulate and keep balanced the 
supply and the demand as to insure stability and consistency. 
It is easily to be seen, therefore, how much of the distress 
that came to the colonists in their economic affairs grew out 
of the instability of the commodity which had come into use 
as the currency of the realm. Only a little money ever found 
its way into the colony. The balances between the tobacco 
grower in America and the commission merchant in England 
was frequently in favor of the English merchant, so that the 



TOBACCO. 149 

amount of money brought from England was meagerly small. 
And even this small amount could not long endure the com- 
petition of so cheap and uncertain a money as tobacco, and 
was soon hurried away to other places and markets where 
in a more congenial atmosphere it had a better chance for 
use and service. 

It was the cultivation of tobacco that determined the 
peculiar system of labor under which the colony lived and 
thrived, and which fastened upon the American people the 
system of African slavery. The form of labor known as the 
"indenture service" and the "redemptionists" is to be traced 
to the increasing demand for labor in the cultivation of to- 
bacco. In the northern colonies the conditions were such 
as not to require the same sort of service and labor. There 
were no large tracts of land to be cleared and cultivated; so 
among the northern colonies there was a demand only for 
domestic service and such labor as was incident to the cul- 
tivation of smaller and more familiar crops, and wherever 
African slavery was maintained it was only in the most de- 
sultory fashion and employed mainly for domestic purposes. 
Hence the grades of society were not nearly so plainly marked 
m the northern colonies as they were in the southern colo- 
nies. The northern colonies presented and preserved a much 
more homogeneous society. The seeming aristocracy of the 
South grew from this very condition of affairs. From the 
nature of the case there was bound to be a class of masters 
and a class of servants or slaves. 

The cultivation of tobacco determined the plantation 
life by which the Virginia Colony was distinguished. It 
fixed the life of the colonists as being rural rather than urban, 
a feature which distinguished it, especially, from the settle- 
ments in New England. On this account the basis of repre- 
sentation in the General Assembly was fixed as from the 



150 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

county rather than from the towns. In spite of vigorous 
and repeated efforts on the part of the General Assembly, 
this state of things continued. It was earnestly endeavored 
time and again to make the towns the centres of life. The 
demand for fresh land from year to year made it necessary 
that large tracts of land should be brought under cultiva- 
tion. These great plantations thus established were in them- 
selves, so to speak, separate jurisdictions and municipalities. 
Each plantation was sufficient unto itself in all things except 
those that were imported from the old country. They had 
their own industries necessary to the manufacture of all the 
things required for the life of the plantation. Most of them 
had their own wharves, at which vessels from England landed 
and delivered their freight, and from which the returning 
cargoes were loaded. In the effort spoken of above to bring 
life into the cities, it was again and again undertaken to 
force the settlers to receive their goods and ship their to- 
bacco at towns designated by the authorities. This was never 
made successful. The owners of the different plantations 
insisted on having their own ports of entry. It is to the man- 
agement of these great plantations that is due the faculty of 
leadership and government so early manifested by the Vir- 
ginia colonists. The estates were very large, and the labor 
required in maintaining them brought to each plantation 
large numbers of people with all the necessities incident to a 
community so varied in capacities and wants. To govern 
these plantations, therefore, called into exercise to a very 
high degree the faculty of administration, and for this form 
of life the cultivation of tobacco must he held responsible. 

One of the most interesting and curious phases of 
the influence of tobacco cultivation is to be seen in the part 
it played in furthering the cause of religious liberty. In_i755, 
when a short crop of tobacco had suddenly enhanced the 



TOBACCO. 151 

prices of that commodity, the Assembly passed an act au- 
thorizing the payment of all tobacco debts in money at two- 
pence per pound. This was the rate established by long 
usage. Three years after its first enactment this act was 
renewed. The salaries of the clergymen of the Church or 
England were paid in tobacco, and if this law should be en- 
forced they would be great losers thereby. There were about 
sixty-five of these clerical gentlemen, and naturally enough 
they were thrown into a great state of agitation over the 
proposed enforcement of this law. They made numerous 
speeches and circulated numerous pamphlets, and finally sent 
an appeal to England, and with the aid of Sherlock, Bishop 
of London, they succeeded in procuring an order from the 
Council that the act be declared void. Immediately suits 
were brought on the part of the clergvmen to recover the 
difference between twopence per pound in the depreciated cur- 
rency and the value of the tobacco to which, by the law, they 
were entitled. It was in the defense of one of these suits 
against the clergymen that Patrick Henry, in 1763, displayed 
for the first time his marvelous eloquence, and although the 
law was plainly against him, he really won the suit, as the 
clergy were awarded only one penny damages. This is a 
part of the story of the struggle for religious liberty, and it 
took its first concrete expression in forcing upon the clergy 
cf the Established Church of Virginia a depreciated currency 
instead of tobacco, to which they were plainly enough en- 
titled. So to speak, therefore, tobacco was the entering 
wedge of the final and complete separation of church and 
state soon to take place, not only in Virginia, but through- 
cut the United States. 

Of political significance also was the question of the 
tobacco trade. One can but recall that when Charles I. 
came to the throne of England he hoped to perpetuate the 



152 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

policy of his father, King- James I., and to rule England his 
own way, and, if necessary, without parliamentary sanction. 
Unfortunately for him, on coming to the throne he founJ 
embodied in the English mind the principle of no taxation 
without representation, and in order to secure money he had 
to tolerate Parliament. When James I. died, the colonists 
sent at once a commission, headed by Governor Yeardley, 
to assure the new King of their allegiance and loyalty, and to 
express to him their very warm desire that the policies which 
they had been allowed to pursue in the latter part of the 
reign of his illustrious father he would graciously allow 
them to continue. A Parliament in Virginia was quite a 
different thing from a Parliament in England, and if he 
might secure from the Virginia Parliament what he could 
have only by assembling the English Parliament and begging 
at its hands, he would have fallen upon a most satisfying 
expedient. It occurred to him that if the tobacco trade might 
be put entirely into the hands of the crown he might be able 
to secure such tributes and taxes as would make him vir- 
tually independent of the English Parliament, and so he was 
disposed to look kindly upon the overtures from Vir- 
ginia made by its commissioners. He made, therefore, 
an exceedingly gracious and favorable response to the over- 
tures of the Virginia colonists, and recognized the Assembly, 
addressing it as "our trusty and well-beloved Burgesses of 
the Grand Assembly of Virginia." Thus he recognized of- 
ficially the existence and authority of the Parliament in Vir- 
ginia. James I. had effected an arrangement with the Lon- 
don Company by which there was to be imported into Eng- 
land from Virginia not more than sixty thousand pounds of 
tobacco annually, and from the Spanish colonies not more 
than forty thousand pounds. In his desire to win the favor 
pi the Virginia colonists Charles I. prohibited all importa- 



TOBACCO. 153 

tions to England from Spain, so that Virginia and the Ber- 
muda Islands had a monopoly of the English tobacco trade. 
Curiously enough Charles I. failed to realize his expectations 
in this point. In one way or another he failed to get the 
tobacco trade under the control of the crown. Nevertheless, 
it remains true that the tobacco trade was the factor that in- 
fluenced King Charles I. to recognize the existence of the 
General Assembly of the Colony of Virginia. 

Furthermore, in the agitations that waged about tobacco 
can be discovered those premonitory and preliminary struggles 
that resulted in Bacon's Rebellion and other lesser eruptions, 
and finally in the great War of Independence. The discontent 
and distress among the tobacco growers was not, indeed, the 
single cause of Bacon's Rebellion, but that it was a most 
lively co-operating cause there can be no doubt at all. 

The widespread distress caused by the enforcement of 
the navigation laws was the cause of universal discontent 
that might easily have been inflamed into most serious out- 
breaks but for the conservative spirit of loyalty to the old 
country. The first of these navigation acts was passed in 
J651. It forbade the bringing of goods into England except 
in English ships or in ships built by the owners of th e goods. 
This act was not intended to injure the trade of the colonists, 
but was aimed at Holland, whose competition for trade with 
England was becoming exceedingly uncomfortable; and it 
was thought that if Holland were deprived of the American 
tobacco trade, she would be eliminated as a rival in the sale 
of goods to the American colonists. It was still further 
hoped that Holland would be compelled, instead of buying 
*ier tobacco from America, to buy it from English merchants 
at their own price. In this the English people were griev- 
ously disappointed, because the long-headed Hollanders hit 
upon the scheme of growing their tobacco in the East Indies 
and importing it therefrom. 



154 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

The application of the navigation act to the American 
colonists meant that the colonists could trade only with Eng- 
land, and could use only English ships. Fortunately, Crom- 
well did not put himself at any pains to insist upon a strict 
enforcement of this act, but when Charles II. came to the 
throne he sought not only to enforce the first act, but to 
issue another act much more far-reaching in its injurious ef- 
fects upon the American colonists. This act required not 
only that all goods carried to and from England should be 
Mi English vessels, but that all commodities produced in 
America should be exported to England and the colonies of 
England alone, thus closing to the Americans every other 
market for the sale of products, and presenting only a single 
market from which products were to be exchanged. The 
result was that Englishmen bought tobacco on their own 
terms and sold their English goods at their own price, every 
sort of competition being eliminated by the operation of the 
navigation laws. Numerous and vigorous protests went up 
from may sources, but all were futile. The inevitable result 
was the depreciation in the price of tobacco. The Virginians 
sought in many ways to remedy the evil, but were never able 
to do so. It was sought from time to time to curtail the 
crops, and at one time to prevent the raising of any crop at 
all. But it was impossible to get perfect agreement among 
the planters and to secure the co-operation of the tobacco 
growers of Maryland and Carolina. 

In 1664 the tobacco crop of Virginia was worth less than 
three pounds and fifteen shillings to each person. In 1667 
th e price of tobacco fell to one halfpenny per pound. Under 
such conditions of things it was quite impossible for the 
colonists to maintain loyal and uncomplaining relations with 
the old country, and out of this universal discontent be- 
gan those eruptions that finally resulted in the War of 



iTOBACCO. 155 

Independence. Mr. Bruce quotes from Thomas Ludwell, 
writing to Lord Berkeley in London, "that there were 
but three influences restraining the smaller land owners 
in Virginia from rising in rebellion, namely: faith in the 
mercy of God, loyalty to the King, and affection for the gov- 
ernment." There is an account of a meeting held by certain 
citizens of Surry, protesting against the condition of things 
and declaring their purpose to refuse payment of taxes. The 
ringleaders in this meeting were fined, but afterwards had 
their fines remitted, with the understanding that they were 
,to show penitence for their wrongdoing and to pay the 
court charges. This latter, perhaps, they were forced into, 
but the former we are sure never came about. 

It is easy to see how the seeds of the Revolution were to 
be found in this discontentment brought about by the en- 
forcement of these navigation laws and the resulting low 
prices of tobacco. So it was among the Virginia tobacco 
growers that one finds those early protests which gathered 
energy and volume with every repetition, and which resulted 
finally in the splendid Declaration of American Independence. 

These considerations abundantly vindicate the above 
statement from Mr. Moncure Conway that the tobacco in- 
dustry was so thoroughly a part of the social and political 
life of the colonists of the seventeenth century that its his- 
tory would involve the history of English and American lib- 
erty. Seldom has ever a single commodity been so deter- 
mining a factor in the life 'of a people. 

Tobacco was, apparently, not indigenous to Virginia, and 
must in some way have been transported from more tropical 
climes. Mr. Bruce, in his "Economic History of Virginia,'' 
calls attention to the fact that in spite of its long presence 
and continued cultivation in Virginia, it is never found as a 
•voluntary growth. 

/ 



156 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

One of the mythological traditions concerning its origin is 
the story of a Mussulman prophet who found a serpent one 
day in a frozen state. This serpent he pressed to his bosom 
and warmed it back to life. At once his serpentine majesty 
gave warning that, according to the rules governing the re- 
lations existing between his family and the human kind, he 
would be obliged to bite him. The prophet protested that 
if he were to do so it would be a piece of very base ingrati- 
tude. The serpent replied that he was exceedingly sorry, but 
that he had sworn by Allah to bite him. That being the case, 
the prophet declared that there was nothing else to be done 
than for him to be bitten ; that an oath made to Allah must 
be kept at all costs ; so he presented his hand to the snake, 
who immediately pierced it with his fangs. At once the wise 
and merciful prophet with his mouth sucked the poison from 
his finger and spat it upon the ground. Immediately there 
sprang up in the place the tobacco plant, which holds in it 
the poison of the snake and the soothing mercy of the pro- 
phet. 

Among the Indians the weed was held in very high es- 
teem, and was regarded as having many mysterious and ef- 
ficacious virtues. It was used in many of their religious ob- 
servances. If a coming storm was to be averted, the dust of 
tobacco was thrown to the winds. If a turbulent sea was to 
be quieted, its dust was thrown upon the waves. If for any 
great disaster the gods were to be appeased and satisfied, 
there was an oblation performed in the shape of tobacco dust. 
If there were special grounds for great thanksgiving, tobacco 
dust was cast with generous hands toward the skies. The 
pipe was the symbol of kindly and hospitable relations. The 
first offer of hospitality was in the passing of a pipe of peace 
from the mouth of the chief to his guests, and so on descend- 
ing from greater to lesser members of the group or tribe. On 



TOBACCO. 157 

one of the first exploring expeditions the settlers discovered 
upon the shores of the river the stalwart form of the Indian 
chief, bearing in one hand his bow and arrows, and holding in 
the other the pipe, by this posture indicating his entire will- 
ingness to give either war or free hospitality. When Smith 
first went among the Rappahannocks, at one point of his 
journey he was met by four Indian chiefs carrying the pipe 
0/ peace and likewise the bow and arrows, thus declaring their 
disposition for either war or peace. 

While there is a record made of the method that the In- 
dians employed in the cultivation of corn and other products 
of the field, there is no account of the method of the planting 
and cultivation of tobacco employed by the aborigines. It was 
usually cultivated in patches of ground near their wigwams. 
The tobacco grown by them was rather stunted, both in length 
of stalk and size of leaf, as compared to the tobacco grown in 
Spain. It seems that they allowed each stalk to come to seed, 
a method which is eschewed by the more successful grower 
or tobacco. The tobacco was cured either by the warmth of 
the sun or by the heat of fire, the Indians adopting either 
method as exigency might seem to require. The settlers first 
cured tobacco in bulk, but about 1620 they put it on sticks 
much after the modern fashion. 

Tobacco was not cultivated any more largely among the 
Indians than seemed to be necessary for the supply of the 
wants of the tribes. It does not appear to have been an 
article of commerce among them. It is said that while che 
Indians never gave over the cultivation of corn, even after 
the settlers were growing superabundant harvests of it, 
they did quit the cultivation of tobacco when the white set- 
tlers began to cultivate it to any large extent, evidently es- 
teeming that it was cheaper thus to procure it or that the 
tobacco grown by the white settlers was superior in quality 



158 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

to that which they had been used. It was used by them as 
a stimulant only in smoking, and was never thought to be fit 
for chewing. The pipes in which it was smoked were usually 
made of clay or of shell. Smith describes the pipe stems 
used by the stalwart Susquehannas as being very long, heavy 
and elaborately carved; so heavy, indeed, that a pipe stem 
could easily be wielded as an instrument of death. 

The first mention by a European of the Indian weed is 
in the diary of Columbus, bearing the date of November 20, 
1492. Soon after this tobacco cultivation was introduced into 
the Spanish Peninsula, and for a long time Spain furnished 
the tobacco that was carried into England. In about 1560 
it was carried over into France by a man who was ambassador 
at Lisbon, named Jean Nicot. Hence the origin of the word 
nicotine. 

On the return of the settlers sent out by Lord Raleigh 
under Lane in 1586, some tobacco was brought into England 
and introduced into conspicuous social centres, and early in 
the seventeenth century it was becoming quite fashionable to 
smoke. Pope Urban VIII. thought the innovation so serious 
and harmful as to demand an official expression and con- 
demnation from him, so he issued a bull against its use, and 
King James condemned so the use of tobacco that he wrote 
his now famous "Counterblast." 

The cultivation of tobacco by the English in Virginia be- 
gan at the instigation and with the example of John Rolfe 
in 1612. It is said that John Rolfe himself was very fond of 
the weed, and began its cultivation in a small way simply to 
supply his own individual wants. The success with which 
he was rewarded suggested to him the possibility of the colo- 
nists finding at last a product that might be of commercial 
use. Hitherto the exportations of the colony had been of a 
very indefinite and irregular sort, consisting mainly of sucri 



TOBACCO. 159 

things as cedar, sassafras and clapboards. But the demand 
for things of this sort was not great enough to secure any- 
thing like a permanent commerce. Governor Dale watched 
with his sagacious eye the experiment of John Rolfe, and was 
quick to perceive the success of the experiment and to take 
advantage of it. With remarkable prudence, however, he took 
great pains to see that foodstuffs were first produced, and 
only when a man had planted three acres of corn was he per- 
mitted to set one acre in tobacco. If such wisdom could have 
prevailed in the years that were to follow, in this particular 
matter, it would have been greatly to the advantage of the 
colonists. When Governor Yeardley, in 1616, succeeded Gov- 
ernor Dale, he found the cultivation of tobacco fairly estab- 
lished, and from this time on it became the recognized staple 
of the colony. Thus Virginia inaugurated the first inter- 
change of commodities between the old country and the new 
that was really entitled to be dignified with the name of com- 
merce. 

The cultivation of tobacco progressed by great leaps and 
bounds, going from a few thousand pounds into the millions 
before the Revolution of 1776. In 1619 twenty thousand 
pounds were exported to England. In 1620 the amount of 
exportation was doubled, and the increase was steady until 
1628, when it amounted to five hundred thousand pounds. 
Eleven years later it had grown to the enormous proportion 
of one million five hundred thousand pounds, and with slight 
urdulations the exportation continued in growth until I745» 
when it reached thirty-eight million pounds, and in 1753 ft 
amounted to fifty-three million pounds. These statistics con- 
tain not only the story of the most romantic prosperity and 
of depression and disasters, but also the story of great reli- 
gious, social and political struggles. Into these old and dry 
figures can therefore be read the history of the joys and sor- 



i6b COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

rows, successes and' failures, and the struggles of nearly one 
hundred years. 

One of the marvelous facts of history is the rapidity with 
which the use of tobacco spread throughout England in the 
seventeenth century. It became a most violent and costly 
fad in all conditions of English society. Rich and poor, old 
and young, male and female, gave themselves with strange 
avidity to the use of the weed. 

Lord Disraeli defends the "Counterblast" of James I. as 
being an effort of a seriously-minded monarch to save his 
people from a vicious and destructive habit. He declared 
that James I. "saw great families ruined by the epidemic 
madness, and sacrificed all the revenues which the crown 
might derive from it in order to assist in its suppression." 

Tobacco shops, where men were allowed to assemble for 
the use of the weed, both in smoking and chewing, were es- 
tablished in numerous places for the convenience of the pub- 
lic. These shops were described in a verse by an unnamed 
poet in a way like the following: 

"In a tobacco shop, resembling hell 
(Fire, stink and smoke must be where devils dwell), 
He sits; you cannot see his face for vapor, 
Offering to Pluto with a tallow taper." 

A French traveler, in 1672, writing concerning the wide- 
spread use of tobacco, said that "it was the custom when the 
children went to school to carry in their satchels with their 
books a pipe and tobacco, which their mothers took care to 
fill early in the morning, it serving them instead of the break- 
fast; and at the accustomed hour every one laid aside his 
book to light his pipe, and the master smoked with them, 
teaching them how to hold their pipes and how to draw in 
the smoke, thus accustoming them to it from their youth, 
believing it absolutely necessary for a man's health." 



TOBACCO. 161 

A Mr. Butler, in a curious volume, speaks of it in this 
fashion : 

"It cureth many griefs, dolour, imposthume, or obstruc- 
tions, proceeding- of cold or wind, especially in the head or 
breast. The fumes taken in the pipe are good against rumes, 
catarrh, hoarseness, ache in the head, stomach, lungs and 
breast; also in want of meat, drink, sleep and rest." 

Another one declared that "when all things were made 
none_were made better than this to be a lone man's company, 
a bachelor's friend, a hungry man's food, a sad man's cordial, 
a wakeful man's sleep, a chilly man's fire ; while for staunch- 
ing wounds, purging of rheum, settling of the stomach, there 
is no herb like it under the canopy of Heaven." 

Even Spenser, speaking of its curative powers, called it 
"divine tobacco." 

There was a common notion that, to a measure at lease, 
it could be substituted for food, and being in a compact form 
and convenient and accessible, it was considered a great ad- 
dition to one's economic outfit. 

"Much victuals serve for gluttony to fatten men like swine, 
But he is a frugal man indeed that with a leaf can dine, 
And needs no napkin for his hands, his fingers' ends to wipe, 
But keeps his kitchen in a box and roasts meat in a pipe." 

This is an evident allusion to the belief of the people in 
the nutritious as well as the stimulative qualities of the weed. 

Oliver Cromwell held the same views as King James 
about tobacco, claiming that the raising of it in England was 
to "misuse and misemploy the soil of the kingdom." He 
sent out soldiers, who themselves were great users of the 
weed, to trample down and destroy all the growing crops of 
tobacco. It was related that some of these same soldiers, in 
attending the funeral of Cromwell, ostentatiously smoked, 
leaping thus a sort of poetic vengeance upon him. 



i62 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

The moralists and preachers of the seventeenth century 
were not slow in making the use of the weed the vehicle for 
moral and religious instruction. A very famous example of 
such use can be discovered in the following quaint verses. It 
should be explained, however, before these verses are recited, 
that smoking tobacco was called "drinking tobacco," as the 
taking in of the smoke seemed to the mind of the day very 
much to resemble the homely art of drinking. And so when 
one was asked to have a drink it might, perhaps, have meant 
nothing more than the offering of a cigar or pipe. 

"Why should we so much despise 
So good and wholesome an exercise, 
As early or late to meditate, 

Thus think and drink tobacco. 

"The earthen pipe, so lily-white, 
Shows thou art a mortal wight; 
Even such gone with a small touch — 
Thus think and drink tobacco. 

"And when the smoke ascending high, 
Think on the worldly vanity, 
Of worldly stuff, 'tis gone with a puff, 
Thus think and drink tobacco. 

"And when the pipe is foul within, 
Think how the soul's defiled with sin; 
To purge with fire it doth require — 
Thus think and drink tobacco. 

"Lastly, the ashes left behind 
May daily show, to move the mind, 
That to ashes and dust return we must — 
Thus think and drink tobacco." 



CHAPTER XTT. 

HOME BUILDING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 

Plainly enough it was not the intention of the first set- 
tlers of Virginia to establish themselves in permanent homes 
on the new continent. They had come with dreams of quickly, 
acquired wealth and of the recuperation of lost fortunes, ex- 
pecting to return to England to resume there the old place as 
gentlemen of leisure or to further increase their store by the 
pursuit of a mercantile or industrial career surrounded by the 
comforts of civilization. It was very far from their plan to 
spend all their days in this land of infidels and savages. On 
this account a number of years passed by before there was 
any real attempt at home building. The two prime requisites 
in home building were altogether absent from the lives of 
these first settlers, namely, houses to live in and women to 
manage them. Concerning the first, Smith bears testimony 
that the first homes were scarcely more than the common 
shacks ordinarily used by huntsmen and fishermen. He de- 
scribes their lodgings as being "castles in the air," so flimsy 
and temporary were their first structures. 

Concerning the women, the records bear out the statement 
that among the first settlers there were none of them. Nor 
were there any with the first supply which Newport brought 
over in the fall of 1607. The first women of whose coming 
we have any record were brought over in the second supply in 
1608, and were Mistress Forest, probably the wife of Thomas 
Forest, a gentleman who came to Virginia at this time, and 

163 



164 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

her maid, Anne Burras. The maid, we have already learned, 
was married in the fall of 1608 to John Laydon. This state- 
ment is an apparent contradiction to the story told by Strachey 
that Pocahontas used to visit the settlement and frequently 
took the boys and girls out on the Jamestown green and 
taught them various Indian games. Evidently Mr. Strachey 
was confusing the visits of Pocahontas with later visits made 
by other Indian maidens after the days of John Smith in Vtr* 
ginia. If we can rely on Smith's history, Mistress Forest and 
Anne Burras were "the first gentlewoman and woman ser- 
vant to arrive in the colony." 

In the nine ships under the command of Gates, Somers, 
Newport and others, there were one hundred women and 
about four or five hundred men. This was really the first 
coming of the women who were to be the mothers and build- 
ers of Virginia homes. During the same year, 1609, a broad- 
side was issued concerning the plantation in Virginia, making 
an appeal for workmen of "all crafts, especially blacksmiths, 
carpenters, coopers, shipwrights, turners, and such as knew 
how to plant vineyards, hunters, shoemakers and sawyers, 
and those who spin wool, and all others, men as well as wo- 
men, who have any occupation." It is to be remembered 
that with Somers and Gates were John Rolfe and his wife, 
and on the Sea Venture, which was wrecked on the Bermudas, 
there were twenty women and children, indicating that the 
gentlemen who came in the party were bringing their families 
along with them. In 161 1 there came more women, but they 
are designated as "a few women." This was the report that 
the Spanish ambassador in England made to the King of 
Spain, complaining that English settlers were gaining a foot- 
hold in Virginia. Toward the end of 161 1 another such re- 
port speaks of the arrival of Sir Thomas Gates in Virginia 
with two hundred and eighty men and twenty women. It 



HOME BUILDING. 165 

was doubtless the coming- of this group that excited the sus- 
picion and alarm of the Spanish ambassador. 

In 1616, on Mr. Dale's return to England, there was a re- 
port on the state of Virginia, and allusion was made to the 
fact that there remained in Virginia only a poor remnant of 
men and women. Bacon, in his essay on "Plantations," which 
was written for the purpose of encouraging the settlement of 
Virginia, shows conclusively that only a few women had, up 
to that time, been sent to the colony. "When the plantation 
grows to strength, then it is time to plant with women as 
well as with men, that the plantation may spread into genera- 
tions and not be ever pieced from without." In other words, 
Bacon was looking to the time when Virginia might have a 
population which would increase from its own offspring and 
not be dependent any longer upon constant importations from 
England. 

There can be no doubt but at the time Bacon wrote the 
London Company had become aroused to the situation. In 
the proceedings of the London Company, November 3, 1619, 
there is recorded a report from Sir George Yeardley asking 
that one hundred women should be sent over. "Maides young 
and uncorrupt to make wives to the Inhabitants, and by that 
meanes to make the men there more setled and lesse moveable, 
who, by defect thereof (as is credibly reported), stay there but 
to gett something and then to returnc for England, wch 
will breed dissolucon, and so, an overthrow of the plantacon. 
These women if they marry to the publiq ffarmors, to be 
transported at the charges of the Company; Is otherwise, 
then those that takes them to wife to pay the said Com- 
pany their charges of transportacon, and it was never fitter 
time to sende them than nowe." This scheme was approved 
by the London Company, and maidens and wives were sent 
in accordance with the request of the Governor. It should 



166 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

be said, however, that even before this action had been of- 
ficially taken, there had come already ninety young women 
to Virginia in the early part of 1619. This, however, was 
due to the far-sighted statesmanship of Sir Edwin Sandys. 
In 1621 the London Company again took up the matter of 
sending maids to Virginia, concerning which the following 
entries are made in the records of the London Company: 

"The Third roll was for sendinge maydes to Virginia to 
be made wyves, wch the planters there did verie much de- 
sire by the want of whom-* have sprange the greatest hin- 
derances of the encrease of the Plantacon in that most of 
them esteeminge Virginia not as a place of habitacon but 
onely of a short sojourning'e have applied themselves and 
their labors wholly to the raisinge of present profitt and ut- 
terly neglected not onely staple Comodities but even the 
verie necessities of man's life, in regard whereof and to prevent 
so great an inconvenience hereafter whereby the planters' 
minds may be the faster tyed to Virginia by the bonds of 
wyves and children, care hath bin taken to provide them 
younge handsome and honestly educated maydes whereof sixty 
are already sente to Virginia, being such as were specially 
recommended unto the Company for their good bringinge 
up by their parents or friends of good worth : Wch maydes 
are to be disposed in marriage to the most honest and in- 
dustrious planters who are to defraye and satisfie to the 
Adventurors the charges of their passpges and provisions 
at such rates as they and the Adventurors' Agents there shall 
agree and in case any of them faile through mortality it is 
ordered that a proporconable addicon shalbe made upon the 
rest. In the furtherance of wch Christian Accon diuers of 
the said Adventurors had underwritt divers good somes of 
money none under 8 li whereby the whole Some of that Roll 
did already amount to 800 li as may appeare by the subscrip- 
tions." 



HOME BUILDING. 167 

A party, in writing from England at this time, said : 

"We send you a shipment, one widow and eleven maids, 
for wives of the people of Virginia; there hath been especial 
care had in the choice of them, for there hath not one of 
them been received but upon good commendations. 

"In case they cannot be presently married, we desire that 
they may be put with several householders that have wives, 
until they can be provided with husbands. There are nearly 
fifty more that are shortly to come, and are sent by our 
Honorable lord and treasurer, the Earl of Southampton, and 
certain worthy gentlemen, who, taking into consideration 
that the plantation can never flourish till families be planted, 
and the respect of wives and children for their people on the 
soil, therefore having given this fair beginning; reimbursing 
of whose charges it is ordered that every man that marries 
them, give one hundred and twenty pounds of best leaf to- 
bacco for each of them. 

"We desire that the marriage be free according to nature, 
and we would not have those maidens deceived and married 
to servants, but only to such freemen or tenants as have 
means to maintain them. We pray you, therefore, to be 
fathers of them in this business, not enforcing them to marry 
against their wills." 

With the introduction of women and the forming of fam- 
ily ties in the colony there followed, of course, a very general 
domestic and social improvement. The first sign of this bet- 
terment was to be discovered in the improvement of the 
homes and the increase of domestic conveniences. It has 
already been suggested that the first homes were of a very 
rude and flimsy sort, made chiefly of clapboard and logs, 
but even before Smith's departure from the colony there was 
a great solicitude on his part that the people should be 
housed in more comfortable and more secure homes. We 



i6'8 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

find that he insisted that the London Company should send 
over men who would be able to build stable and comfortable 
houses, making- an appeal for workmen of all crafts, espe- 
cially carpenters and brick masons. On the succession of 
Governor Yeardley the same urgency was repeatedly ex- 
pressed. He was instrumental in getting for the colonists 
very many things that contributed to the comfort and use- 
fulness of the homes. 

The first houses tha_ were constructed were frame build- 
ings, the timber for which was cut from the neighboring for- 
ests and sawed at first by hand, though we know that a saw- 
mill was established at Jamestown in 1630. The output of 
such mills as were in the colony must have been very 
meagre, for throughout the seventeenth century there was 
a constant complaint on account of the lack of suitable tim- 
ber and boards for the construction of houses. 

Jamestown was at first literally a wooden town, on which 
account it was speedily and completely swept away by fire 
in the terrible winter of 1608-og. Not until these disastrous 
conflagrations had been repeated several times was there any 
real purpose to secure houses of brick. There were, to be 
sure, a few bricklayers in the colony, but their work had been 
hitherto confined mainly to the building of foundations and 
the construction of chimneys. It was provided that brick- 
makers should be placed up^n the college lands at Henrico, 
but so far as the record goes there was not a single brick 
house in the colony at the time the Virginia Colony became 
a royal province. Thirteen years later Governor Francis 
Wyat received instructions to the effect that he should re- 
quire every owner of a plantation so large as one hundred 
acres of land to build upon it a brick house at least twenty- 
four feet long and sixteen feet wide, but there is no evidence 
that there instructions were carried out in many instances. 



HOME BUILDING. 169 

This same order was afterward repeated to Sir William 
Berkeley. It is known that the secretary of the colony, 
Kemp, did erect a brick residence at about this time in James- 
town, which was reported to be the most substantial private 
dwelling- in the colony. It is likely that during Berkeley's 
time more than one-half of the buildings constructed at 
Jamestown were of brick, and by the beginning of the eigh- 
teenth century many of the best homes were built of brick. 
Berkeley caused a brick mansion to be built for himself at' 
Green Springs, about six miles from Jamestown. The larger 
colonial mansions, however, were not erected until later in 
the eighteenth century. The seventeenth century houses 
were usually not over forty feet long by twenty feet wide, 
and quite frequently not even so large. None of these first 
buildings exhibited any architectural design or beauty. They 
were usually a story and a half high, with dormer windows, 
and in many ways were quite unique, and in many things 
quite attractive; but they did not by any means compare 
with the homes of Englishmen of the same rank. 

It was an exceedingly difficult matter to procure materials 
that entered into the construction of buildings; especially 
was it a difficult matter to find nails. So scarce were they 
that we are told that some land-owners, whenever they moved 
westward to take up better lands, used to burn their cabins 
m order to secure nails for the construction of their new 
homes. This custom became so general that in 1645 a * aw 
was passed requiring every planter to leave his dwelling 
intact, and that he should be allowed, at public expense, as 
many nails as two impartial men would decide was the num- 
ber of nails in the building which he was leaving behind him. 
This was done with the hope of preventing further destruc- 
tion of property. Doubtless the first houses at Jamestown, 
in the majority of cases, were built without the use of nails. 



170 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Mr. Butler, no doubt, had ample ground for his assertion, in 
"Virginia Unmasked," that the Virginia homes were the 
worst in the world, and that the most wretched cottages in 
England were equal, if not superior, to the finest dwellings 
in the colony. 

The houses were ordinarily built upon the same general 
plan, and the typical dwelling in Virginia in the seventeenth 
century was a plain, unadorned frame house of moderate size, 
with a chimney built on the outside at each end. 

There is an account of the home occupied by Nathaniel 
Bacon, Sr., at the close of the seventeenth century, in which 
it is described as containing what is known as the old and 
new hall, a room over the hall, an outer room, an upper 
chamber, a chamber of Mrs. Bacon's, a chamber above it, 
also a kitchen, a dairy and storeroom; the three latter, doubt- 
less, being separated from the main residence. Colonel Bacon 
was one of the largest property holders in Virginia, and his 
residence must have been far above the average in size and 
convenient arrangement. 

Robert Beverley, the historian, whose estate was ap- 
praised at many thousands of dollars in cur money, occupied 
a house which contained a chamber in which he himself slept, 
a second chamber overhead, a porch and hall chamber, a 
dairy and kitchen, and the overseer's room. The plastering 
of these homes was nothing more than a thick layer of mud 
covered with whitewash. The roofing was usually of shingles 
or clapboards. There were rarely glass windows, but only 
slides. 

The furniture of these early homes was imported into 
the colony, mainly in exchange for tobacco shipped to Eng- 
land. The furnishings of the homes, however unattractive 
the exterior might have been, were, in many instances, equally 
as good as that of the best London homes. Their bed- 



HOME BUILDING. 171 

steads are described under the following titles: "The large 
"bed," "the sea bed," "the flock bed" and "the trundle bed." 
The bedsticks were usually made of canvas stuffed with the 
feathers of wild and domestic fowl, but oftentimes were 
stuffed with the flower of the cattail, which is almost as soft 
as down. In the chamber was usually found a trunk, a chest 
of drawers with a looking-glass attached, and an open fire- 
place with andirons of brass or iron. The dining-room was 
fitted out with an imported table, chairs and sideboard. For 
the poorer class the plates from which they ate were made of 
pewter. For the better class china was used and imported 
from England. By the middle of the seventeenth century 
there was, according to the author of "Leah and Rachel," a 
good supply of silver in many of the homes of the prosperous 
planters. Silver grand cups and spoons were in special evi- 
dence. The candle was the common means of lighting the 
house at night, and was usually manufactured from wax 
and suet. The candlesticks were of many kinds and fash- 
ions — earthenware, pewter, brass, copper, iron, and, at times, 
even silver entered into their manufacture. In the homes 
of the poorer classes the pine knot, in all likelihood, took the 
place of the candle. 

As to the matter of dress, it is somewhat difficult to dis- 
cover satisfactory information. It is probable that the men 
of the colony dressed, especially on occasions, far more ac- 
cording to the fashion of England than was usually expected 
of people living in the wilderness. This is explained by the 
fact that many of the settlers being English gentlemen, 
brought with them the clothes of London gallants of their 
rank, and that they continued for a long time to import their 
wardrobes from England. John Smith advised that every 
settler coming to the colony should secure in England a 
Monmouth cap, three shirts, one waistcoat, one suit of can- 



i 7 2 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

vas, one of broadcloth, three pairs of Irish stockings, one 
pair of garters, four pairs of shoes and one dozen pairs of 
points. 

A gentleman dying at Jamestown in 1629 bequeathed 
his personal clothes to friends. Among his garments there 
was a coif, a cross cloth of wrought gold, a pair of silk 
stockings, a pair of red slippers, a sea-green scarf, six dozen 
buttons of silk and thread, a felt hat, a Polish fur cap, a 
doublet of black camlet, a vest, a sword and a gold belt. It 
should be said, however, that this gentleman was a promi- 
nent merchant of Jamestown, and probably this bequest rep- 
resented a part of his stock of goods which he had been of- 
fering for sale to the English gentlemen of the Jamestown 
settlement. 

By the middle of the seventeenth century the House of 
Burgesses passed a law prohibiting the introduction of gar- 
ments containing silk ; of the introduction of silk pieces, ex- 
cept for hoods or scarfs ; or of silver, gold or bone lace, or 
of ribbons wrought with gold or silver. Such a sumptuary 
law, however, as may easily be imagined, had no appreciable 
effect, and we know that the Virginians at the time of Wil- 
liam Berkeley dressed in the mode of English gentlemen. All 
the privations and hardships of the wilderness life could not 
take away from them the inherited tendencies of old Eng- 
land in the matter of dress. 

From the meagre descriptions that remain to us, it would 
seem that the wardrobe of the women of the colonies was 
somewhat less elaborate than that of the men of the first 
rank. For a long time after the establishment of the colony 
all of their clothes were imported from England. Silk seems 
to have been quite in vogue as material for dresses, petti- 
coats and stockings. It must be remembered that it was 
very many years before cotton came into cultivation and use, 



HOME BUILDING. 173 

and that there was not at first, therefore, the spinning-wheel's 
presence or that of the loom in the homes of the colonists. 
Later on these found a lar.ge and useful place in the econo- 
mies of the household, and many of the garments of the 
poorer class, especially of the servants and slaves, were spun, 
woven and made on these plantations. It came to be after 
awhile so that each plantation was a kingdom unto itself, 
and provided largely for all the food eaten and the clothes 
worn on the plantation. 

The dress of these colonial dames was not altogether de- 
void of jewels and ornaments. Jewels, such as pearl neck- 
laces, gold pendants, silver earrings and gold finger rings 
were frequently to be seen on the persons of the better class 
of women. These were, of course, brought over from Eng- 
land in most instances by the wives of the early governors, 
members of Council, and of other distinguished gentlemen 
who came to the colony in the early days. By the time of 
the flourishing days of the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury these evidences of wealth and luxury were imported 
from England. 

An interesting use was made of a jewel called the gift 
ring, and was provided for in wills. These gift rings were 
left to friends and relatives as parting mementoes, and were 
frequently designated as mourning rings. In the will of Na- 
thaniel Bacon, Sr., it was ordered that twenty pounds of his 
estate should be used to buy mourning rings for certain per- 
sons to whom he was greatly attached. John Page's will au- 
thorized the purchase of eighteen such rings. 

The plantations were widely removed from one another, 
and communication between them was not easy unless they 
were located along the river banks ; then the river served as an 
easy and delightful means of transportation. The roads were 
scarcely more than bridle-paths, and the streams were rarely 



174 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

bridged. It will be recalled, however, that in the country, 
as the first settlers found it, there was very little under- 
growth, and it was easy to find passageways through the 
forests. In the early days the planters had no horses. It 
was 1619 before it had occurred to the company in London 
to send horses to the farms. In 1627 Charles I. urged the 
people of Virginia to produce pitch and tar. The Governor 
and Council replied that nothing could be done along this 
line until the colony was provided with horses with which to 
transport the wood to the kilns where the pitch and tar 
could be made. As late as 1649 there were only three hun- 
dred horses in the entire colony, and fourteen years later the 
record shows that this number had been greatly increased. 
The prices were, however, still very high. In 1669 an act 
of the Assembly set forth the fact that horses were becom- 
ing a burden on the community, in that they were allowed to 
run at large. This is an indication that the number must 
have rapidly increased. 

Cows, goats and swine were brought from the old coun- 
try at a very early date, but we are told that during the 
"Starvation Time" all of these were killed with the excep- 
tion of one sow; so when Lord Delaware arrived in 1610 
he dispatched forthwith a ship to the Bermudas to procure 
a number of wild hogs. In 161 1 Dale brought over a cargo 
of sixty cows, and in the summer of the same year another 
cargo of one hundred cows and two hundred hogs was im- 
ported. Every effort was made to get more beasts of burden. 
Oxen were in more common use than at the present day, 
and frequently the ox was used in plowing. In 161 5 Argall 
made an expedition into Canada and seized a number of 
horses, which were brought into Virginia. Yet, when Yeard- 
ley became Governor, domestic animals were so scarce in 
the colony that he made a long report, urging the London 



HOME BUILDING 175 

Company to send to the colony a number of horses, heifers, 
etc., and he imported a herd of twenty-four cattle to be 
placed on his farm at Flower de Hundred. The fact that 
cattle were so scarce in Virginia probably explains, if it does 
not excuse, Dr. John Pott's act of larceny in stealing some 
cows. By 1650, however, cows were very numerous and 
prices had very greatly decreased. Still, for a number of 
years, in order that the cattle might be allowed to multiply, 
it was made a felony to slaughter a cow. The proportion 
of cows and oxen was very much larger than that of horses, 
as is shown by the inventories of the estates during the 
seventeenth century, the proportion being generally one 
horse to seven cattle. It is doubtless true that the first Vir- 
ginia families worked their lands with oxen and used their 
horses more for pleasure than as beasts of burden. 

From this statement it will be seen that after the first 
years of colonial life, very rapid progress was made in the 
evolution of the Virginia home. With a very remarkable 
celerity, due to the thrift of the colony in the development 
of the commerce in tobacco, these settlers were able to es- 
tablish homes in which, by the close of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, there was exceeding plenty and exceeding comfort. It 
is, no doubt, due to the domestic affluence of these early 
days that the Virginias have ever been fond of good living. 
Early in the history of the colony the grace of hospitality 
was assiduously and cheerfully cultivated, so that since the 
founding of these first Virginia homes there have been no 
doors thrown quite so wide open in the offer of genial and 
cheerful hospitality as the homes of the "Old Dominion." 
Even unto this day hospitality has nowhere under the 'stars 
so generous an exemplification as in the homes of the heirs 
and successors to these builders of the first homes in the 
Virginia Colony. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
MASSACRE AND REVENGE. 

Under the wise administration of Governor Yeardley, in 
three years the Virginia Colony had reached a very high state 
of thrift and prosperity. There were now something like fonr 
thousand Englishmen in the colony. Plantations had been 
planted all the way from the falls at Richmond, on either side 
of the James River, reaching around Hampton and Newport 
News to Chesapeake Bay. Everywhere were the evidences 
of contentment and prosperity. The James River was flecked 
with the sails of vessels bringing and carrying commerce to 
and from the new colony. In the last three years there had 
been especial development in several directions. The General 
Assembly had been established, and was being cherished with 
determination and patriotic pride. With its establishment 
there had come a self-reliance and a feeling of competency 
that were the guarantee of increasing strength and stability. 
There had sprung up between the coiony and the old country 
a most remarkable commerce in tobacco. So large were the 
returns from its cultivation that many of the most substantial 
class from the old country were attracted to the new colony. 
Within three years, with unwonted dispatch, these people 
were being established upon large and thrifty plantations. 

With the coming of the maids in 1619 the home life of 
the colony had undergone a great change. Homes had been 
established, with all the influence and encouragement to in- 
dustries incident to domestic life. The prospect was one of 

176 



MASSACRE AND REVENGE. 177 

unusual promise, and there seemed to be on the horizon noth- 
ing prophetic of any serious setback in the history of the 
colony. Upon the marriage of Pocahontas with Rolfe, it 
seemed as though amicable relations were to be indeed main- 
tained between the two races. The Indians were no longer 
feared by the white settlers. The freest sort of traffic and 
intercourse was maintained between the two races. There 
was a constant visitation of the Indians to the settlement of 
the whites, where they had cordial welcome and where they 
were allowed the largest liberties. The wise regulations 
that had been made by the first Assembly had fallen into dis- 
use ; especially had there been a violation of the law pro- 
hibiting the sale of firearms, until here and there in every 
group of Indians there might be found firearms, in the use of 
which they had become wonderfully expert. It is said that 
Governor Yeardley himself kept an Indian servant supplied 
with firearms in order that game might be procured for his 
use. This had been done so gradually that no one wls aware 
of how it ever came about that there had been put into the 
hands of people liable to become their enemies at any time 
these implements of destruction. But so quiet had been 
the demeanor of the Indians, so kindly the treatment of the 
whites at their hands, so many the tokens of cordial good 
will, that all suspicion of any hatred or treachery on their 
part seemed to have been utterly dissipated ; so when there 
began to be rumors of a conspiracy among the Indians threat- 
ening the lives of the colonists and the destruction of their 
institutions, there was a widespread skepticism. 

Powhatan died in 1618, about a year after the death of 
Pocahontas. But before his death he had abdicated in favor 
of his brother, Opitchapan, who is described as being "an old 
and inert man." He was soon deposed by Opechancanough. 
There is a tradition to the effect that this latter was not 



178 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

really a brother of Powhatan, nor indeed a Virginian at all, 
but a mysterious and stalwart stranger from some south- 
western country, who, by the sheer force of his own native 
ability, became the head of the federated tribes over which 
Powhatan had ruled. 

We have already seen that Powhatan was being distressed 
over the fact that it seemed to him that the coming of the 
whites meant a contest for the lands of Virginia. Doubtless, 
in his view, it was inevitable that sooner or later a serious 
encounter must be had. the issue of which would be either 
that the whites would be driven into the sea, or the Indians 
pushed westward into the interior. But he was old and in- 
disposed to hasten the encounter, and thought it to be wise 
for him and his people, as long as he lived, to be on amicable 
terms with the white settlers. 

When Opechancanough became "Powhatan," he was a 
man in the meridian of his years, full of strength and daring. 
He did not fail to foresee or to prepare for the inevitable 
conflict. There is evidence that early in his reign he began 
to plan for the destruction of the white settlers of the Vir-i 
ginia Colony. It came to him that he might by one con- 
certed, vigorous and sudden blow accomplish the destruction 
of the entire colony from Richmond to Hampton. In the 
most cunning, secret and patient way he gave himself to the 
accomplishment of this wicked and bloody task. With con- 
summate diplomacy he brought tribe after tribe of the scat- 
tered Indians into the scheme and compact of war. For four 
patient years he devoted himself to the perfecting of his con- 
spiracy and the maturing of his plan of campaign. In a most 
marvelous way the scattered hosts of savages were made 
i eady for the delivering of the blow that should fall upon the 
unsuspecting and unprepared settlers as a bolt of lightning 
out of a clear sky. 



MASSACRE AND REVENGE. 179 

In 1621 the King of the Eastern Shore Indians informed 
the English that on the occasion of the ceremony in taking 
up Powhatan's bones there was a very large gathering of 
Indians from the various tribes, and that at that time Ope- 
chancanough made a general plot to "set upon" every planta- 
tion in the colony. Governor George Yeardley, on receiving 
this information, went in person to every plantation and 
took .an inventory of men and arms, and gave earnest instruc- 
tion that they keep a strict watch upon their Indian neigh- 
bors. But Opechancanough protested that there was not a 
particle of truth in the rumor, and the English, not being 
able to discover any other proof, believed his statement to be 
true. After Governor Wyatt, the successor of Yeardley, en- 
tered upon his office, he sent a special message to the Indiaa 
chief to know about the chances of continued peace between 
them. The old chief sent word back that he was so deeply 
enamored of the peace existing between the settlers and his 
people that the skies should fall before he broke it. Further- 
more, at his earnest request, the "words of peace" were 
stamped in brass and nailed to his favorite oak tree. 

George Thorpe, superintendent of the college lands at 
Henrico, had always entertained a great interest in the In- 
dians, and especially in the Indian chief. He built him a 
house, which greatly delighted the Indian emperor. "Thorpe 
first built him a fair house, in which he took much joy, es- 
pecially with the lock and key." It is said that the old In- 
dian chief was so bewitched with the mechanism of the lock 
and key that he would lock and unlock the door hundreds of 
times during the day, playing with it as a child would with 
a toy. a 

Thorpe having thus gained, as he believed, Opechancan- 
ough's good graces, he undertook to convert him to the Chris- 
tian faith, and the old Indian showed great interest. "So as 



180 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

he gave him a faire hearing and a good answer and both he 
and his people for the daily courtesies of the good gentleman, 
did promise such outward love and respect unto him as 
nothing could seeme more." The old chief evidently was 
willing to be converted if it would make more certain the 
chances of securing Thorpe's scalp. 

In every ostensible way Opechancanough was the devoted 
friend and brother of the white man. He permitted no op- 
portunity to pass without the expression of his undying 
friendship. White men who had been lost in the wilderness 
were furnished with guides back to the settlement. White 
prisoners who had been detained in the camps of the Indians 
were sent back bearing every possible token and expression 
of brotherly and neighborly regard. The very morning when 
the blow fell, Indians came into the various settlements bear- 
ing gifts of game and making protestations of cordial friend- 
ship. They accepted the hospitality of the Virginians and 
ate their morning meal at their tables. There was on the 
part of the white settlers no suspicion at all in the act. They 
had come so thoroughly to believe that the Indians were a 
subdued race that they would not tolerate the suggestion that 
they were capable of doing them ary harm or hurt. An 
Indian named Nemattanow, and whom the settlers called 
"Jack of the Feather," murdered one of the colonists, and 
was immediately killed. Although this was not an altogether 
new sort of incident in the relations of the Indian and 
white man, the Indian emperor seized quickly upon it as an 
excuse for making trouble. He began immediately to fire 
the savage heart with the story of this particular outrage 
and of the wicked treatment that they were constantly re- 
ceiving at the hands of the white men. He called them to 
the act of retaliation and to the defense of their homes, in- 
vaded by the Englishmen. 



MASSACRE AND REVENGE. 181 

As though a mine had been planted, the explosion came 
on March 22, 1622, at the same hour of the day, all the way 
from Berkeley's plantation to Southampton's Hundred, on 
the Chesapeake Bay. "They fell upon the English and basely 
and barbarously murthered them, not sparing age or sex, 
man, woman or child. Being at their several works in the 
house and in the fields, planting corn and tobacco, gardening, 
making brick, building, sawing and other kinds of husbandry, 
so sudden was the cruel execution that few or none dis- 
cerned the. weapon or the blow that brought them to de- 
struction." 

Six members of the Council were killed. The reported 
list shows, however, only the names of four — George Thorpe, 
Captain Nathaniel Powell, John Berkeley and Samuel Macock. 
It is argued that the other two must have been John Rolfe 
and Michael Lapworth, as they unmistakably died about this 
time, and as the other members of the Council are all ac- 
counted for. 

When the night of that dreadful day fell, three hundred 
and forty-seven persons had been slain. Of the twenty-four 
people at Falling Creek only a single boy and girl escaped. 
Around Henrico settlement more than eighty met their death. 
Indeed, one report declares that so many as a hundred and 
eighteen were killed at this place. George Thorpe, one of 
the most useful men in the colony, and one of the most de- 
voted friends the Indians had, in spite of his warm interest 
in the old Indian emperor, and though warned by his ser- 
vants, whom he refused to believe, was killed and his body 
shamefully mutilated by the savages. At Appomattox, 
Flower de Hundred, Macock, Westover, Powell's Brook and 
Martin-Brandon there was the same story of destruction 
and slaughter. In some instances settlers were able to de- 
fend their homes and to beat off their assailants. At Martin's 



182 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Hundred seventy-three were butchered. Very curious in- 
deed is the report that near Martin's Hundred there was a 
small family who knew nothing- of the massacre until after 
two days had passed. Not many were killed on the Eastern 
Shore, and this is attributed to the fact that the "laughing 
King" could not be induced to join in the "general combina- 
tion against the English, which otherwise might have com- 
pleted the ruin of the colony." This attitude of the "laugh- 
ing King" kept from the Eastern Shore settlements Indians 
from remoter tribes. Save for the revelation of Chanco, the 
Indian convert at Jamestown, the slaughter would have been 
universal. He notified his master, for whom he had great 
affection and from whom he had received much kindness, 
that the blow was going to fall the next morning. The 
warning had come too late, however, to be widely circulated. 
Men were immediately sent out to warn the neighboring set- 
tlements, but there was not sufficient time for them to cover 
more than a circuit of five miles from Jamestown. 

"That God had put it into the heart of the converted In- 
dian to reveal the conspiracy by which means Jamestown 
and many colonists were preserved from their treacheries, 
was regarded as the most exquisite incident in the life of 
the colony. For more than three hundred of ours died by 
these pagan infidels, yet thousands of ours were saved by 
means of one of them alone which was made a Christian. 
Blessed be God forever Whose mercy endureth forever. 
Blessed be God Whose mercy is above His justice and far 
above His works ; Who brought this deliverance whereby 
their souls escaped even as a bird out of the snare of the 
fowler." 

Toward the late evening of that horrible day a single boat 
eet out from Jamestown, under the command of the wise 
and good Governor Yeardley, to go as far as Flower de Hun- 



MASSACRE AND REVENGE. 183 

dred, "trying tio save such people who might have lain 
wounded." 

At the time of the massacre it is said that there were 
two English ships anchored at Jamestown, one also anchored 
somewhere on the Pamunkey River. None aboard these 
ships were molested, neither were they in a position to be 
of any great service in the dreadful conflict of that day. 

Immediately steps were taken to discover the extent of 
the damage inflicted and to safeguard the lives of those who 
had been spared in the scattered plantations. It was thought 
best to call in the settlers upon the out-lying plantations and 
establish them in the immediate neighborhood of Jamestown. 
The property of the various plantations having been de- 
stroyed, their cattle driven off, and foodstuffs stolen or 
burned, it was necessary that something be done immediately 
to procure subsistence for the settlers who remained. One 
of the English ships was immediately dispatched to the Bar- 
badoes to secure supplies. This ship returned! promptly 
later in the season, loaded with supplies, which made it rea- 
sonably certain that the colonists could pass through the 
ensuing winter safely. 

Order having been restored, The Sea Flower, an English 
vessel then in port, was dispatched to England to bear the 
sorrowful tidings of the great disaster. The Governor and 
Council sent a special communication to the London Com- 
pany, and letters were sent from Sir George Sandys the poet, 
George Harrison and others, telling of the massacre. Daniel 
Gookin went over with others especially to relate in person 
the story of the great disaster, "how whilst all their affairs 
were sure of success and such intercourse of families as if 
the Indians and themselves had been one nation, the treach- 
erous nation, after five years of peace, by a general combina- 
tion in one day plotted to subvert the whole colony and at 



184 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

one instant of time, though our several plantations were one 
hundred and forty miles up one river and on both sides." 
In their communication to the company the Governor and 
Council related what they had already tried to do to safe- 
guard the interests of the colony, what things they had in 
mind to perform, and what requests they desired to make 
upon the company. It was stated in this communication 
that their conviction was that the main settlement had bet- 
ter be removed from Jamestown to some other place that 
might be more easily and more strongly fortified. They 
asked that they would send them especially an engineer and 
some provisions and a supply of implements of war, "all 
which being specially done, the plantation will suddenly be 
in a far more safer, happier and flourishing estate than ever 
it was before." 

The company's answer to this communication was an 
expression of sympathy and a cheerful word of encourage- 
ment, coupled with advice as to their future treatment of 
the Indians and with the promise of the needed supplies and 
support. "The calamities that have befallen do much grieve, 
but do no whit daunt us for we see no danger but rather ad- 
vantage to be met thereby as we cannot but think the seed- 
ing of this blood will be the seed of the plantation for the ad- 
dition of price hath much endeared the purchase." 

It was advised that the armor furnished by the King 
should be made the beginning of a public armory to the 
colony as a perpetual testimony of His Majesty's royal bounty 
and favor. The fact that a part of this armor sent by His 
Majesty's royal favor was out of date and unusable in any 
serious conflict, and that the barrels of powder sent by the 
King's favor were not a gift, but a loan, must have taken 
the unction out of this exhortation from the London Com- 
pany. Captain John Smith, then residing in England, of- 



MASSACRE AND REVENGE. 185 

fered to go over to Virginia and subdue the Indians, but the 
London Company did not accept of his offer. 

If the Indians imagined that on account of the long delay 
there was to be no retaliation on the part of the English, 
their minds were destined to be most cruelly disabused. The 
delay had been caused by the wise effort to protect them- 
selves from further attack and to make provision against 
the coming winter. But when these things were accom- 
plished, most serious preparations were made for inflicting 
punishment upon the savages for their treachery and bar- 
barity. 

Sir George Yeardley was placed in charge of the cam- 
paign as the commanding officer of the English forces. 
"George Sandys fell upon the Tappahatonaks, opposite James- 
town, in several expeditions. Sir George Yeardley fell upon 
the Wyanottes, Captain Powell fell upon the Chickahominics, 
and Captain John West sought out the Tanx-Powhatans." 
Everywhere the Indians fled before the English. There were: 
really not so many slaughtered as might have been imagined, 
but their homes were destroyed and their property confis- 
cated. It was determined by the end of August to make 
war upon Opechancanough with five hundred men, "hoping 
by God's help this winter to clear the country of him and 
so set the colony in a far better estate than it was ever be- 
fore." "And thus the massacre will result in the speedy ad- 
vancement of the colony and much to the benefit of all those 
who shall hereafter come thither. ' 

In the fall Yeardley went down the river and drove out 
the Nansemondas and the Warrasskoyacks. He drove them 
from their homes and captured their corn. He returned up 
the river by way of Kiccowtan and then went up the Pamun" 
key to the chief seat of Opechancanough. 

These warlike expeditions continued from time to time; 
until peace was established in 1632. 



i86 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

It was a cruel massacre; and it was a long and cruel re- 
taliation. It was easy enough for the Englishmen in their 
comfortable homes in England to complain that this retalia- 
tion was filled unnecessarily with cruelty and wrong. They, 
in a comfortable environment, were dealing with a theory; 
the white settlers of Virginia were facing dreadful conditions. 
And when we look back across the lapse of three centuries, 
the conflict seems to have been inevitable and the retaliation 
inexorably necessary. 

Among the disastrous results in the colony was the post- 
ponement of enterprises that had been launched with great 
enthusiasm. Cherished plans with reference to the establish- 
ment of an educational institution at Henrico were bting 
rapidly realized, and if there could have been a few more 
years of prosperity and peace, the institution would doubt- 
less have been founded upon a substantial basis. Bat the 
massacre seemed almost to have utterly dissipated all plans 
in that direction. It is true that the London Company sent 
over a successor to Mr. Thorpe, but do what he might, he 
found it impossible to stimulate any interest in the enter- 
prise which the people had once been so enthusiastic about. 
Not until the founding of William and Mary College was 
there realized anything like the early anticipations and plans 
of the settlers with regard to an institution of learning. And 
even then more thought was had for the education of their 
own sonsi than of the children of the aborigines. 

And so, too, the early zeal in connection with the con- 
version of the Indian to Christianity died out after the mas- 
sacre. Some years before the Reverend Jonas Stockton had 
declared it to be his conviction that it was useless to under- 
take to convert the Indian until priests and ancients were put 
to the sword. There were very many now who looked upon 
this utterance as being wise and true. The truth is, except 



MASSACRE AND REVENGE. 187 

in rare instances, their main thought of the Indian was to be 
rid of him at the earliest possible moment. And while there 
were individual instances where the old zeal for the conver- 
sion of the Indian remained, it could not be said that there 
was any general interest in the matter of his evangelization. 

There were, likewise, unfortunate delays in the industrial 
development of the community. The ironworks at Falling 
Creek, under the superintendence of Mr. Berkeley, were aban- 
doned, when there was every promise that they might be 
worked successfully. At various times efforts were made 
to rehabilitate the works, but never was there any chance of 
such success as was promised at the time of the massacre. 

In other respects, doubtless, the massacre had a whole- 
some influence upon the settlers. They learned the lesson 
of interdependence. They were made to feel that the dangers 
to which they were liable were common dangers, and that 
they must stand together if their lives and property were to 
be safeguarded. It can scarcely be doubted but that there 
was a solidarity among the settlers after the massacre that 
never existed before. 

The most, astounding phase of the whole transaction is 
that the colonists were so little discouraged. While there 
were propositions that Jamestown be removed to a locality 
more easily fortified, there were no suggestions that the 
whole enterprise of colonization be given over. With extra- 
ordinary courage they set themselves to that rearrangement 
and readaptation that should guarantee more surely their 
future. 

The communication which was sent to the London Com- 
pany disclosing the tidings of the dreadful massacre had the 
ring of high hope and of dauntless courage, and in answer 
the brave Englishmen of the London Company reached 
across the seas and grasped the hands of their brothers on 



i88 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the western shores in a new pledge and covenant of loyalty 
and devotion in the establishment of American colonization. 
Some one has said that it was the John Bull in the English- 
men that inspired the great movement, and it was the John 
Bull that maintained it and brought it to successful realiza- 
tion. 

Except in one or two other separated events, the Indians 
of Virginia were rarely aggressive in forcing any conflict 
upon the settlers. For a score of years, in the main, the 
English settlers were the aggressors in every conflict. 

Opechancanough was still alive in 1644. He was now 
nearly one hundred years old, and had lost the vigor and 
strength of his early manhood. So wasted had he become 
that he could not open his eyes, and had to be carried about 
upon a litter. And yet the old man's recollection of the past 
was bitter and his spirit vengeful. His courage remained 
undaunted to the last, and the long brooding over the treat- 
ment his people had received at the hands of the English 
settlers led him to one last desperate resolution to make war 
again on the English. Whatever could have induced the old 
chief to believe that there was any chance of success no 
one could imagine. It was reported, however, that he hai 
been told of the civil war then in progress in England, and 
that now was the time or never to root out Englishmen. It 
is further sought to explain the action of the old chief by 
suggesting as a ground for it the fact that Sir John Harvey 
was encroaching upon the territory set apart for the Indians. 
It is to be doubted whether either of these had any influence 
at all upon the old man. It looks very much as though it 
was an instance of that vengeful spirit of the savage that 
remembered everything and forgot nothing that had to do 
with any injury endured and suffered. However it was, he 
suddenly threw himself upon the settlers along the upper' 



MASSACRE AND REVENGE. 189 

banks of the York and Pamunkey Rivers, and before the 
English could rally their forces nearly three hundred of the 
settlers were slaughtered. Berkeley, who was then at the 
head of affairs at Jamestown, got together a body of horse- 
men and marched rapidly to the scene and routed the Indians 
at every point and captured the old chief. He was carried 
on his litter to Jamestown. It was said that it was the pur- 
pose of Berkeley to transport him to England, but this in- 
dignity was spared the old chief. The fire of his anger burned 
fiercely until the very last. The crowds gathering around 
him and staring curiously at him greatly offended his sense 
of propriety and dignity, and he cried out to Berkeley that 
if it had been his fortune to take Sir William Berkeley 
prisoner, he would have disdained to make "a show of him." 
Soon afterwards he was shot in the back by some one having 
charge of him, doubtless to avenge some personal spite. He 
died of this wound, and thus passed away the most relent- 
less as well as the most able enemy of the settlers among the 
aborigines. And doubtless with him passed away every 
reasonable hope among the Indians that they should ever be 
able to regain the land from which they had been driven by 
these first English settlers in the wilderness of the new con- 
tinent. By the time of Bacon's Rebellion the Indians were 
practically driven from Tidewater Virginia, and as the set- 
tlements moved westward the Indians were likewise pushed 
back. So far as Virginia is concerned, the Indians made 
their last stand at Point Pleasant, on the Ohio River, in 1774, 
of which something will be said in a subsequent chapter. 
To-day the Virginia Indians are represented by a small hand- 
ful of the Pamunkey tribe residing on Indian Neck, in King 
William county. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
PLANTING THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 

In our study of the reasons for colonization the religious 
motive was seen to have prevailed with varying degrees of 
intensity. In the charter granted to the London Company 
it was said "so noble a work might, by the Providence of 
Almighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of His Divine 
Majesty by propagating the Christian religion to such peo- 
ple as yet live in darkness," and a royal ordinance was added 
"that the word and the service of God should be preached, 
planted and used not only in said colonies, but as much as 
might be among the savages bordering among them accord- 
ing to the rites and doctrines of the Church of England." 

The religious idea was present in much of the planning 
of the company with reference to the welfare of the colonists. 
In all their discussions there was in evidence a most pious 
purpose and an earnest desire to nave Divine guidance and 
assistance in their effort to plant a church in the wilderness. 
In keeping with this spirit it was provided, in 1621, that there 
should be an annual sermon before the general court. In 
November of that year a note was addressed to the deputy 
treasurer and the rest of the company, sent by an unknown 
friend, which reads as follows: 

"You shall receive here enclosed forty shillings for a ser- 
mon to be preached before the Virginia Company this Mich- 
aelmas term and before the quarter court day. The place 
I leave to your company's appointment. Also I desire that 

190 



THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 191 

Mr. Davenport may preach the first sermon of the com- 
pany's appointment. I will, if God permit, make a perpetuity 
of this kind ; so beseeching- your good acceptance of this small 
mite and also that you, Mr. Deputy, perform your promise 
in concealing my name, I take my leave and rest, as daily. 
(Signed) "ORATOR FOR VIRGINIA." 

The offer was accepted, and Mr. Davenport preached the 
first annual sermon before the company in 1621. It is worth 
while to note in passing that this same Mr. Davenport be- 
came one of the leading pastors of the Puritans in New Eng- 
land, and served the church at New Haven, Connecticut. 

The following year it was agreed that the dean of St. 
Paul's should preach the sermon. St. Michael's Church, in 
Cornhill, was appointed as the place. It was also agreed that 
after the sermon a supper should be served as had been done 
the year before. John Dunn, who was the dean of St. Paul's, 
preached the sermon, which evidently was one of great power. 
He exhorted, "Be you a light to the Gentiles that sat in dark- 
ness! Be you content to carry Him over the seas who dried 
up one Red Sea for His faithful people and hath poured out 
another Red Sea, His own blood for them and us ! Preach 
to them doctrinally, preach to them practically. Enamour 
them with your justice and your stability but inflame them 
with your Godliness and religion." 

On account of factions that were developed in the com- 
pany, and on account of the troubles with King James, it 
was thought best to omit the annual sermon of 1623, although 
the offer from the unknown friend was repeated. 

There is evidence that even the adventurers who had come 
to the American continent before Jamestown was established, 
were actuated in many instances by very high purpose to ex- 
tend the church. Hariot, in his account of his experiences 



192 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

when he came over to Roanoke Island, said : "Many times, 
and in every town where I came, according as I was able to, 
I made declarations of the contents of the Bible that therein 
was set forth the true and only God and His mighty works, 
and therein was contained the true doctrine of salvation 
through Christ, with many particularities of miracles and 
chief points of religion as I was then able to utter and thought 
fit for the time." 

It ought to be remembered, to the credit of Lord Raleigh's 
memory, that when he surrendered to the company the char- 
ter that he had received from the Queen, he accompanied the 
transfer with a donation of one hundred pounds "for the pro- 
pagation of the Christian religion in Virginia" — "the first 
offering" (said Mr. Anderson, in his "Colonial Church His- 
tory,"), "as far as I can learn, avowedly made by Englishmen 
for such a purpose." 

Mr. Hakluyt declared that he was interested in coloniza- 
tion "for the glory pf God and the saving of the souls of poor 
and blinded infidels." 

It seems, however, that the work of the company in this 
direction was entirely apart and separate from ecclesiastical au- 
thorities and the sanction of the Church of England. There is 
no evidence that the church, as such, at the beginning of this 
colonization movement, authorized or set on foot any agencies 
looking to the religious welfare of the colonists or to the 
evangelization of the aborigines. The selection and sending 
out of ministers seems to have been lefi entirely to the Lon* 
don Company. Their appointments of ministers were usually 
made after commendation by some one of their own number, 
and after "the committee" was satisfied with the character 
and fitness of the minister. It was their custom to have 
preached before them trial sermons so that there might be a 
practical demonstration of a minister's ability to preach. 



THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 193 

In December, 1620, Captain Roger Smith was about to 
sail with a party. It was moved "in behalf of a young- scholar 
desirous to go with him this present voyage, that he might 
be admitted to preach to the people now sent." The com- 
mittee agreed "hereafter to give him a text to preach from 
a fortnight hence, in the handling whereof if they found him 
a successful scholar he should be entertained accordingly." 
This seems not to have been unusual, for the following year 
a Mr. Leat, who had been preaching in Newfoundland, wanted 
to go to the Virginia plantations, and was commended by a 
prominent merchant of London. "He would put the com- 
pany to no charge except for necessaries and such books as 
would be useful to him, which request the company thought 
very reasonable and referred him to the general committee 
to be treated, and concluded with touching some moderate 
allowances to be bestowed upon him." He likewise was re- 
quired to preach a trial sermon from 2 text selected by the 
company, "ninth of Isaiah, second verse." 

There is an interesting record of a Mr. Bolton, recom- 
mended by the Earl of Southampton as a minister "for his 
honesty and sufficiency in learning, fit for a vacant place in 
Virginia." Mr. Bolton became the first minister on the East- 
ern Shore of Virginia. Concerning hin> there is a record in 
the minutes of the Council as follows : 

"Whereas it is ordered by the Governor and Council that 
Mr. Bolton, minister, shall receive for his salary this year 
throughout, of the plantations of the Eastern Shore, ten 
pounds of tobacco and one bushel of corn for every planter 
and tradesman above sixteen years, alive at the crop." Cap- 
tain Williams was to execute this warrant and see that the 
minister's salary was raised. 

From these quotations there is plainly borne out the 
statement that the first ministers who came to the Virginia 



194 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

plantations were sent out under the sole direction of the Lon- 
don Company. Among those who first came as ministers 
were several men distinguished for their scholarly culture 
and for their genuine piety and thorough unselfishness. 
There came with the first group of settlers the Rev. Mr. 
Hunt, of a most sainted and blessed memory. Mr. Ander- 
son, in his "Church History," speaks of him on this wise : 

"And with it sailed the first English minister who exer- 
cised the cure of souls upon those shores. The course of 
Robert Hunt was short, and the notices of him were few, 
but they leave an impression that the first English pastor in 
America was a man of genuine piety, simplicity and love. 
By him, after the reconciling of much dissention, the first 
communion was celebrated, and under his care the House of 
Prayer was one of the first buildings that marked the site of 
Jamestown." When he died, falling at his post in the ter- 
rible epidemic that came upon the settlers during the first 
summer, even the hardened soldiers said of him : "His soul 
questionless is with God. An honest, religious and courage- 
ous divine, during whose life our factions were often qualified 
and our wants and greatest extremities so comforted that 
they seem easy in comparison with what we endured after 
his memorable death." The memory of this pure and un- 
selfish minister of the New Testament will forever hallow 
and sanctify the lonely island where his ashes lie buried, un- 
marked, and from which is lifted as yet no monument upon 
which the children of after generations may read the story 
pf his simple faith and devotion. 

The successor to Mr. Hunt at Jar-estown was the Rev. 
Richard Buck, who came in the Sea Venture with the party 
that had been wrecked on the Bermudas. He found, on his 
arrival, in 1610, that the church building that had been erected 
by Mr. Hunt was well-nigh in ruins, and seemed to be in 



THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 195 

disuse. The church was immediately renovated and repaired, 
and Mr. Buck took up the regular work of the church. "He 
was esteemed a very good preacher." It was he who opened 
with prayer the first Legislative Assembly. He died in the 
year 1623. 

In 1610 there came a party from the Netherlands, under 
the direction of Sir Thomas Dale, and made a settlement near 
Henrico. The Rev. Alexander Whittaker came as the chap- 
lain of his party. He was the son of a distinguished Puritan 
lecturer of Cambridge University. He was himself a gradu- 
ate of Cambridge, and had been pastor for a number of years 
in north England. It seems that he had a competency of 
his own. His friends had no sympathy with his purpose to 
become a missionary in Virginia, and did what they could to 
dissuade him from carrying out this plan. Croshaw says of 
him : "He, without any persuasion but God and his own heart, 
did voluntarily leave his warm nest and to the wonder of his 
kinsmen and amazement of those who knew him, undertook 
this hardest, and in my judgment, heroic resolution to go to 
Virginia and help to bear the name of God to the Gentiles." 
He seems to have been a man of exceeding fine spirit and 
culture, and of very great consecration to his work. He was 
the author of a paper entitled "Good News From Virginia." 
It was an effort to stir up interest in Virginia as a field for 
missionary operations. It was a plain and brusque document 
in which he was at no pains to temper his thought and utter- 
ances. He alluded to the Indians as "naked slaves of the 
devil." He says that one of the reasons why good people 
should bestir themselves in zeal for religious work in the 
colony is that "the devil is a capital enemy against it and con- 
tinually seeketh to hinder the prosperity and good proceeding 
of it." He made an especial appeal to the rich that they de- 
mote their means to the spread of the gospel in America, call- 



196 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

ing attention to the great waste of money on the part of the 
rich. "Some make no scruple at it to spend yearly a hundred, 
two, three, five hundred pounds ard much more upon dogs, 
hawks and hounds and such sports, which will not give five 
hundred pence to the relief of God's poor members. Others 
will not care to lose two or three thousand pounds in a night 
at cards and dice, and yet suffer poor Lazarus to perish in the. 
street for want of their charitable alms." 

Mr. Whittaker lived at Martin's Hundred, and was the de- 
voted friend of Governor Dale, and with Sir Thomas was 
greatly interested in the conversion of Pocahontas. He it 
was who officiated at her baptism. Mr. Argall, in a letter to 
the Virginia Company, dated 9th of June, 1617, states that 
Mr. Whittaker was drowned, but gives no- information as to 
the circumstances. By his wisdom, consecration and self- 
sacrifice he won for himself the title of "The Apostle of Vir- 
ginia." 

There is every evidence that at the outset the early set- 
tlers, supported by the London Company, took a very great 
interest in the religious life of the colony, and were really sin- 
cere in their purpose to evangelize the aborigines. Bishop 
Meade quoted in his "History of Old Churches and Families 
in Virginia" the following as the order of the day among the 
first settlers : 

"The men were divided into groups who worked on alter- 
nate days. The gang for the day was thus delivered to the 
masters and overseers of the work appointed, who kept them 
at their labor until nine or ten o'clock, according to the season 
of the year, and then at the beat of the drum they were 
marched to the church, where they would hear some discourse 
or some service. After dinner they rested until two or three 
o'clock, and at the beat of the drum the captain drew them 
forth to be taken to their work until five or six o'clock, when, 



THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 197 

at the beat of the drum, they were again marched to the 
church." Bishop Meade quoted a prayer which he said was 
probably written by Mr. Whittaker, a prayer for the morning 
and evening use of the watch or guard, to be offered up either 
by the captain himself or by one of his principal men or offi- 
cers. The prayer closes in this way : "And here, O Lord, we 
do upon the knees of our hearts, offer Thee the sacrifice and 
praise and thanksgiving for that Thou hast moved our hearts 
to undertake the performance of Your blessed work with che 
hazard of our persons, and hath moved the hearts of so many- 
hundreds of our natives to assist with means and provision 
and with their holy prayers. Lord, look mercifully upon them 
all and for that portion of their substance which they willingly 
offer for Thy honor and service in this action, recompense 
it to them and theirs and reward them sevenfold with bless- 
ings. Lord, bless England, our sweet, native country. Save 
it from popery; this land from heathenism-, and both from 
atheism. And Lord, hear their prayers for us, us for them, 
and Christ Jesus, our glorious Master, for us all. Amen." 
It will be observed that this is not taken from the Book of 
Common Prayer. Bishop Meade calls attention to the fact 
that the fathers of the Episcopal Church in America did not 
feel themselves violating any canon of the church when they 
made use of other written or extemporaneous prayers. 

For a number of years the clergymen of the Episcopal 
Church had very little to do in the management of church 
affairs. The vestry seems to have been the source of author- 
ity. Not until after the Revolution was there an American 
Episcopacy. Native American clergymen were obliged, after 
receiving their education in this country, to go to England to 
receive ordination. Bishop Meade may be quoted as saying, 
"The vestries were the depositories of power in Virginia. They 
not only governed the church, but the election of ministers, 



198 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the laying of taxes and the enforcing of the laws, and also 
made laws for the House of Burgesses." The tenure of of- 
fice was very uncertain and depended upon the judgment and 
oftentimes the caprice of the vestrymen. In vain were ap- 
peals made by the clergymen to the Bishop of London that 
this state of things might be relieved and remedied, but there 
was no interference on the part of the ecclesiastical authori- 
ties in England with the regime into which the church had 
fallen in America. The vestries continued to call the pastors 
when it suited their pleasure, and to dismiss them, paying lit- 
tle regard either to the wishes of the people or the desires of 
the minister. Mr. Anderson, in his "History of Colonial 
Churches," gave this state of things as one of the reasons 
why the church made such slow progress in the colonies, that 
the right to govern itself had been surrendered to the State 
authorities. He may be quoted as saying, "For the want of 
this completeness of ecclesiastical organization no legal es- 
tablishments, no endowments or salutes can ever compensate 
The church must have in itself its own power of self-inspec- 
tion and direction. It must have in it a voice whose author- 
ity it will respect, and demand that the world should respect 
as the expression of its own mind. Spoiled of its own pro- 
per means of action and centre of union, it must in process 
of time, lose its energy of spirit and dignity of character, and 
sink as the church of Virginia sank amidst its tithes of to- 
bacco, its appointment by vestries, its visitation by com- 
manders and its episcopacy of governors." Not until 1771 
was there even proposed any organized movement looking to 
the establishment of an American episcopate. So varied were 
the views and so confused the times that it was impossible 
to arrive at any pronounced consensus of opinion and peti- 
tion. So the whole matter was held in abeyance until after 
the War of the Revolution. 



THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 199 

Up to the close of the seventeenth century the Church of 
England presented the only outward and organized expres- 
sion of the religious thought and life of the colony. With 
the close of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the 
eighteenth century, influences that had long been more or 
less vaguely felt began to be crystallized into definite forms of 
church life, and from that time on until the close of the Revo- 
lutionary War, the Church of England was in decline in the 
colony of Virginia. 

It will be interesting to trace the influences which were 
at work in the colonial life and which brought such disas- 
trous results to the established church. The growth of 
democratic ideas had no little to do with the discouragement 
of such forms of religious life as were presented by the Church 
of England, and with the encouragement of freer and more 
independent forms as expressed in the faith and the purposes 
of numerous dissenting bodies. The spirit of the day was 
the spirit of democracy, seeking everywhere emancipation 
from old forms and organizations and interpretation in sim- 
pler forms and freer life. With little trouble it might be 
proven that political tendencies find expression not only in 
civic institutions, but also in ecclesiastical organisms. And 
so it was the same spirit that fought against the idea of the 
divine right of Kings that clamored also for a freer demo- 
cracy in church life and forms. The contention of the non- 
conformists and dissenters appealed, therefore, strongly to 
the spirit of the times, and found a congenial atmosphere for 
the propagation of its faith and life. 

To the influence of the Puritan must also be traced the 
beginnings of the decadence of the Church of England as a 
leligious form and power in the iife of the colony. The in- 
fluence of the Puritan was subtle and pervasive. The pres- 
ence of the Puritan idea can be discovered at a much earlier 



200 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

date than is commonly supposed. Attention has already been 
called to the fact that the London Company was arrogaiting 
to itself large liberty in the sending of clergymen to the colo- 
nies. The Rev. Mr. Whittaker, of whom we have already 
spoken, was the son of a distinguished Puritan lecturer at 
Cambridge, and there is evidence that he inherited some of 
the spirit of his non-conformist father. In the prayer above 
quoted, and which is attributed to his authorship, there is an 
indication that he was not unwilling, when exigencies re- 
quired, to depart from the usual forms of the church. Sir 
Edwin Sandys, who became the ruling spirit of the London 
Company upon its reorganization in 1619, was the son of the 
archbishop, who was not unwilling t<> say of the rites and 
ceremonies of the Church of England: "I have ever been 
and am presently persuaded that some of them be not so 
expedient in this Church now but that, the Church reformed 
and in all this time of the Gospel (wherein the seed of the 
Scripture hath so long been sown), they may be better dis- 
used by little and little than more and more urged." Mr. 
Neil, in his "English Colonization of America," quoting the 
above statement, adds the following: "The son of such a 
father was not the man to press for a literal conformity to 
ecclesiastical canons, and was ready to encourage any sin- 
cere minister of Christ to take up his abode in Virginia." 

The extent of this Puritan influence is further illustrated 
in the work and life of the Bennetts, of whom there were 
several. In the year 1621 a Mr. Edwin Bennett, an influ- 
ential citizen of London (who had been made, on motion of 
Sir Edwin Sandys, a free member of the Virginia Company, 
on account of services he had rendered in promoting the in- 
terests of the colony, and especially on account of the paper 
which he had submitted to the House of Commons urging 
the prohibition of Spanish tobacco), made a settlement near 



THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 201 

the Isle of Wight. This settlement was made on the Nan- 
semond River. The minister accompanying that colony was 
the Rev. William Bennett. He remained for two years only. 
He was succeeded by Rev. Henry Jacob, who had been in 
his youth a preceptor at Christ Church College, at Oxford, 
had spent some time visiting Leyden and had really been 
converted to the faith of the Puritans, and who, on his re- 
turn, established the first independent church in England. 
He died after a brief residence in Virginia. 

To this group of ministers laboring in the Nansemond 
settlement was added Rev. Richard Bennett, a nephew of 
Edwin Bennett. In connection with these ministers also 
labored the Rev. Thomas Harrison, who was at first a mem- 
ber of the Established Church and the chaplain of Lord 
Berkeley, by whom, on account of his dissenting views, he 
was finally expelled from the colonv. The settlement at 
Nansemond became the great centre of the dissenting idea, 
and was most influential in the propagating of the views of 
the dissenters and non-conformists. 

There is evidence that the clergymen took considerable 
liberty in their use of the liturgy of the church, feeling free 
to make departures therefrom when occasion seemed to re- 
quire. There were present in the church from the beginning 
men without orders, who were allowed no small place in the 
service and work of the church. It even happened that the 
vestries who had every authority in this matter, selected 
only lay readers to conduct the forms of worship rather than 
to be at the expense of securing men having orders. Were 
time permitted us, there could be numerous citations by 
which could be proven that early in the history of the colony, 
and maintaining itself steadily, was the spirit of the Puritan, 
eager to throw off elaborate forms of ceremonies and to take 
upon itself simple forms of faith and service ; so by the time 



202 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the church was seriously assaulted by the growing influ- 
ence of the dissenters, the people had in one way or another 
been prepared for a rather easy transition from the more 
elaborate to the simpler forms of church life and expression. 

Nor can it be forgotten that the very persecution heaped 
with increasing bitterness upon the dissenters as they seemed 
to multiply in numbers and in influence, must have rebounded 
to the hurt and injury of the Church cf England. The in- 
tolerant spirit of the royalists and the conformists showed 
itself early in the acts of the General Assembly. It will be 
recalled that early in the history of the colony, by formal 
action, the Church of England became the established 
church of the colonists, and the support of, and the attend- 
ance upon, whose service was a matter of duty laid vigorously 
upon every member of the colony. These early acts, how- 
ever, were not passed with reference to any other forms of 
religion, because at the outset none of these forms were 
present in the colony. In the acts of 1661 it was provided 
that ministers must be ordained by a bishop in England, 
and that all other preachers were to be banished. Every 
person who refused attendance at the parish church for one 
Sunday was to forfeit the payment of fifty pounds of to- 
bacco. Every non-conformist was to be fined twenty pounds 
for a month's absence, and if he failed for a year to put in 
his appearance at the service of the church, he was to be 
arrested and made to give security for his future good be- 
havior, or in lieu thereof to remain in prison until he was 
willing to come to church. 

In "Hening's Statutes" there is recorded the one hun- 
dred and eleventh act of the Grand Assembly of i66i-'62, 
which is as follows : 

"Whereas many schismatical persons out of averseness 
to the orthodox established religion, or out of many new 



THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 203 

fang-led conceits of their own heretical invention, refuse to 
have their children baptized, be it therefore enacted by the 
authorities aforesaid that all persons in contempt of the 
divine sacrament of baptism, which refuse when they may 
carry their child to a lawful minister in that county to have 
them baptized, shall be amerced two thousand pounds of 
tobacco, half to the informer and half to the public." 

Every historian has a story of the persecutions heaped 
upon the dissenters. Mr. White tells a story of a band of 
men who were driven from Virginia for their religious opin- 
ions in 1634. Mr. Burke tells of the savage barbarities in- 
flicted upon Stephenson Reek in 164c. He was forced "to 
stand in the pillory two hours with a label on his back, pay 
a fine of fifty pounds, and was in prison at the pleasure of 
the Governor, for simply saying in a jocular manner that 
"His Majesty was at confession with my Lord Canterbury." 
And so the dreadful story goes. Mr. James Madison cor- 
roborated it all in a very strong statement that he made in 
writing to a Philadelphia friend in 1774: "That diabolical 
hell-conceived principle of persecution raged among them, 
and to their eternal infamy the clergymen can furnish their 
quota of imps for such purposes. There are at the present 
time in the adjacent county not less than five or six well- 
meaning men in close jail for proclaiming their religious sen- 
timents, which are in the main quite orthodox." It was in- 
evitable but that the church, in the minds of the people sup- 
posed to be back of and authorizing these persecutions, 
should come into common disrepute at a time when people 
were loving liberty so ardently. 

Nor can it be doubted but that the worrdli'ness that per- 
vaded the church had much to do with its decline and dis- 
favor. Not only were the lives of the members of the church 
in flagrant contradiction and defiance of the vows they 



204 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

had taken upon themselves, but in many instances even the 
ministers had fallen into lives of thorough disrepute. 

The people in the first half of the eighteenth century- 
were living in the enjoyment of exceeding prosperity and 
liberty, and restraints were thrown off and the life of the 
colony was expressing itself in great religious indifference 
on the one hand, and on the other hand in glaring immor- 
alities. 

In 1719 complaint of this condition of things had been 
made to the Bishop of London, who instituted an investiga- 
tion, but there was returned to him the answer that no mem- 
ber of the investigating body had ''any personal knowledge 
of the irregularities of any clergyman's life." Good Bishop 
Meade does not hesitate to call attention to the fact that 
the phrase "personal knowledge'' was in all probability a 
sheer evasion. There is much proof that the clergymen, 
along with the members of their parish, played cards, hunted 
the fox and indulged in drink. Such courses were not looked 
upon in those days with any more favor than they are at the 
present time. Mr. John Esten Cooke added most sensibly 
this sentence : "What was even worse, they had no small love 
for their neighbors, the dissenters." 

The influence, however, that produced the most acute 
and positive deflection from the Church of England was that 
of the revival movements under Whitefield and Methodism. 
In 1740 George Whitefield, who had been educated at Ox- 
ford, and between whom and John Wesley a strong friend- 
ship sprang up, began with Mr. Wesley the great revival 
movement that was destined to sweep over both continents. 
He was ordained a deacon, and soon became a famous 
preacher. A year after his ordination he came to Georgia 
with his friend Wesley, at the invitation of General Ogle- 
thorpe, to convert the Indians. His first visit to America 



THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. 205 

was short. It was on his second visit that he set afoot those 
tremendous revival influences that so mightily stirred the 
religious life of our people. And under the influences of 
this great movement there was a great turning of the people 
toward the churches, and, in the main, toward the churches 
of the dissenters, and in the tide was borne many who had 
for years been identified with the Church of England. 

The deflection from the established church was so great, 
and the growth of dissenting bodies so rapid, that at the time 
of the Revolution two-thirds of the population were members 
of the dissenting churches, mainly of the Presbyterian, Bap- 
tist and Quaker denominations. It would be profitable and 
interesting to trace the movements of these independent 
bodies and to record the splendid work they did in the way 
of evangelization and reformation, especially in their strug- 
gles for religious liberty, and the large part they played in 
bringing about the War of the Revolution and in carrying it 
to successful issue, but the limits of this chapter forbid any 
such elaborate treatment. 

Out of the religious confusion and strife of these years 
there is this great satisfaction, that it was doubtless due to 
these conflicts that the great boon of religious liberty was 
achieved. There could be but one end to the ecclesiastical 
struggle, as there could be but one end to the long struggle 
for political freedom. It was from the outset in both cases a 
foregone and inevitable conclusion that the people and de- 
mocracy should ultimately triumph. No people living in the 
enjoyment of political freedom will long tolerate interference 
from any source, especially in that particular where men feel 
they should be most free. Nor could it be possible for peo- 
ple to live in the enjoyment of religious freedom without 
soon insisting upon the same prerogative in political life. 

At the close of the Revolution steps were taken to secure 



206 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

an American episcopacy, and in the year 1785 the Rev. Dr. 
White, of Philadelphia, and the Rev. Dr. Provost, of New 
York, were sent over to England and received at the hands 
of England's ecclesiastical authorities apostolic ordination, 
so that the apostolic succession so much valued by the Epis- 
copal Church was secured for the church henceforth to be 
maintained under American auspices. The Bishop of London 
had always had the supervision of the clergy of Virginia, this 
colony being a part of the London diocese, but in 1790 James 
Madison, the president of William and Mary College, went to 
London and was consecrated as Bishop of Virginia. Thus 
the established church passed into the Episcopal Church of 
Virginia in its religious organization. In its secular relations 
it was no longer a part of the State, having been partially dis- 
established in 1776, and totally disestablished in 1785. It 
now took its place along with the various dissenting bodies, 
which had been growing into influence in the middle of the 
eighteenth century on account of the incoming of the Scotch- 
Irish and Quakers, and the growth of the Baptists and the 
revivals of the followers of Whitefield and the Wesleys. 

Let it never be forgotten that it was to the Church of 
England on the new continent, and to the faithful men who 
wore its orders that we are indebted for the pronounced re- 
ligious tone and influence that attended the beginnings of 
our national life. 



CHAPTER XV. 
VIRGINIA UNDER CHARLES I. AND CROMWELLS. 

The story of the vicissitudes of Virginia's growth and 
development is one of intense interest. In the previous chap- 
ters has been given an account of the beginning of coloniza- 
tion, of trade, of labor problems and the introduction of 
slavery, of education, of legislation and of home-building. 
Firm were the foundations laid during the period of the Lon- 
don Company, to which due credit has not always been given, 
because at times its management of the infant colony was 
devoid of business sense and its po! ; cy often short-sighted. 
But viewed from many standpoints this company stood for 
the best political thought of England, which was just begin- 
ning to clamor for the rights of the individual and the com- 
mon people as opposed to the divine-right theory of James 
Stuart. The mantle of the London Company, after its aboli- 
tion by the quo warranto proceedings of the King, fell upon 
the colonists themselves, and very worthily did they main- 
tain in a conservative way their rights as English subjects, 
and with it all a spirit of loyalty to the English crown. The 
Virginians of the seventeenth century believed that they were 
entitled to certain legal rights, and with all due respect to 
the King they insisted that tnese rights should be recognized. 

Having secured a legislative Assembly during the days of 
the London Company, they insisted after the abolition of the 
company on the continuation of their Assembly. Charles I. 
granted their request and Virginia continued to grow, gov- 

207 



208 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

erned by laws chiefly of their own making. The early days 
of Virginia as a royal province saw two excellent Governors. 
Sir Francis Wyatt and Sir George Yeardley, the latter for his 
third time in office. . These men were adherents of the liberal 
party of the London Company, often designated as the faction 
of Sir Edwin Sandys and the Earl of Southampton. Hence, 
so far as the colony itself was concerned, the inhabitants saw 
no difference in its management. By the time of the death of 
Yeardley, in 1627, its population had reached five thousand 
souls, distributed among eighteen plantations, chiefly along 
the banks of the James River. With the death of Yeardley 
came a succession of Governors who added nothing to the de- 
velopment of Virginia. The first was Francis West, a gen- 
tleman of noble birth and brother to Lord Delaware, who had 
saved the colony in 1610. He was followed in a few months 
by Dr. John Pott, probably a physician, though according to 
the old reports he was a man widely read in the literature of 
the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans. In the annals of 
Virginia history his name will always be remembered, be- 
cause after he had been removed as Governor he was accused 
of cattle stealing and tried before the Virginia Council, then 
the supreme court of the colony as well as the upper house 
of the General Assembly, and was declared guilty. John Har- 
vey, who had superseded Pott as Governor, suspended the 
'.-.sentence, and, on petition to the King, the case was referred to 
the commissioners of Virginia, who declared that the "con- 
demning Pott of felony was very rigorous, if not erroneous." 
Sc there seemed some grounds for the belief that the learned 
doctor had been dealt with unjustly, tut in spite of the de- 
cision of the commissioners, history has branded him as a 
cattle thief. 

When Sir John Harvey became Governor in 1630, a new 
era of expansion began in the colony. Already there were 



CHARLES I. AND CROMWELLS. 209 

thirty settlements along the James River, but in this year the 
first real settlement on the south side of the York River, about 
twenty-seven miles below the juncture of the Mattapony and 
the Pamunkey Rivers, was formed, and two years later an- 
other settlement on the same river was made. About this 
same time William Claiborne, an English gentleman who had 
come to Virginia in 1621 as surveyor of the plantations, planted 
a colony on Kent Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, and Middle 
Plantation, afterwards Williamsburg, was laid out and a line 
of palisades from "tidewater to tidewater" were constructed. 

Students of Virginia history have frequently forgot the 
fact that the London Company did not go out of existence 
without a protest. Many of its members lived for thirty or 
forty years longer. A large number of them were members 
of the British Parliament, in which body they fought against 
the action of Charles I. in trying to collect taxes without the 
consent of Parliament. They forced Charles to approve, in 
1628, the famous Petition of Right, acknowledging that the 
1 ight of taxation lay in the hands of Parliament. And worthy 
to be remembered here is the fact that the words of protest 
in the Petition of Right relating to taxation were almost iden- 
tically those which had been embodied in a resolution of the 
Virginia Assembly in 1623-24. Tnis same liberal element 
even conceived of the plan of reviving the London Company. 
The leaders of this movement were Sir Edward Sackville and 
George Sandys. The latter will be remembered as the treas- 
urer of the colony of Virginia, which position he held from 
1621 to 1628, and during which time he translated at James- 
town into English verse the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid. 

Sir John Harvey, the Governor, was not of this liberal 
party; therefore he tried in Virginia to imitate his master in 
England, the King — namely, to raise taxes without the con- 
sent of the Virginia Assembly. But as had been done in 1624, 



210 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the Assembly again, in 1632, declared that no taxes should b"e 
laised save by its authority. At the head of the opposition 
to Harvey stood William Claiborne, now Secretary of State 
for the Colony of Virginia, having been appointed to that po- 
sition by Charles I. in 1625. Because of his opposition he 
was finally removed from his office by the Governor. Politics 
''ran high," and the colonists were divided into Harveyites 
and anti-Harveyites. Some asked for the removal of the Gov- 
ernor, while the others believed in his policy. By some he 
was painted as extortionate, unjust and arbitrary, while others 
regarded him as a "grafter," claiming that he had granted 
lands for a consideration, while others went so far as to as- 
sert that he was a thief and used the public revenue as his 
own private property. Finally, in 163 5, Harvey made a blun- 
der by suppressing an address to the King from the Assembly 
on the question of the tobacco trade. If there was one thing 
dear to the hearts of Virginians it was the hope of having a 
monopoly on all tobacco shipped into England. So, by sup- 
pressing this petition, the Governor lost the support of many 
who had previously been his adherents. The anti-Harveyites 
now predominated, and, behold, the people of Virginia rose 
up and demanded that Harvey should be removed as Gov- 
ernor. Some of the leaders, at the instigation of Harvey, 
were arrested. But the Council refused, in its capacity as 
the supreme court, to try the prisoners. The Governor then 
accused one of the councilors of high treason, whereupon the 
Council arrested him and kept him in confinement. This same 
body immediately called an Assembly which met at James- 
town, ratified the action of the Council, put Harvey aboard a 
ship and sent him to England in custody of two members of 
the House of Burgesses. The action of the Council was 
briefly recorded as follows: "On the 28th of April, 1635, Sir 
John Harvey thrust out of his Government and Captain John 



CHARLES I. AND CROMWELLS. 211 

West acts as Governor until the King's pleasure known." 
No one has painted for us Charles I when he received the 
news of the action of the Virginia Council and Assembly, but 
no doubt he was greatly enraged to think that the people of 
so insignificant a country would dare to remove from office a 
man appointed under a royal commission. It is reported, 
however, that he declared it an act of regal authority, caused 
the two Burgesses who carried Harvey to England to be ar- 
rested, and summoned the members of the Council who had 
been unfriendly to Harvey to appear in England to answer 
for their crimes. Moreover, to the chagrin of the Virginians, 
Charles I. reappointed Harvey as Governor, in order that the 
removal of one of his appointees might not be regarded as a 
precedent. 

For four years Sir John continued as Governor of Vir- 
ginia, but his life was not a pleasant one. In the meantime 
the affairs of England were rapidly approaching a crisis. The 
realm was racked and torn by a struggle between the sup- 
porters of the King, known as "Cavaliers," and the opponents 
of the King, who soon came to be known as "Roundheads." 
The question was whether the King should lay the taxes or 
the people — whether a privileged class or the common people 
should rule England. In some respects it was a question of 
aristocracy as opposed to democracy. In so far as English 
conditions affected Virginia, the situation was this: Among 
the opponents of the King- were arrayed those old members 
of the London Company who were demanding the restoration 
of their charter. To this the King would not consent, but 
he was so far moved by their strength that he consented, in 
1639, to remove Harvey, and appointed as Governor Sir 
Francis Wyatt, the same gentleman whc had been a follower 
of Sir Edwin Sandys and the Earl of Southampton, and who, 
along with Yeardley, had ruled in Virginia so acceptably ; and, 



2i2 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

strange to say, so anxious was the King to conciliate this 
public feeling that he gave instructions in his own hand- 
writing that Captain West, of the Council, who had been the 
chief advocate for the removal of Harvey, and who had acted 
as Governor at the time that Harvey was transported from 
the colony, should be appointed Master General of the colony. 

Governor Wyatt at once called Harvey to account for his 
abuses of power in Virginia. The property which Harvey 
had got together by means fair and foul was seized to satisfy 
his numerous creditors. An effort was made by the General 
Assembly for the restoration of the charter of the London 
Company, and George Sandys was appointed as general agent 
of the colony in England, and petitions were forwarded to 
England which were interpreted by George Sandys as advo- 
cating, on the part of the colony, the restoration of the London 
Company. He made an appeal to Psrliament in 1640, and 
actually secured the passage of a resolution authorizing the 
revival of the patent rights of the London Company of Vir- 
ginia. This action was more than Ch tries I. was willing to 
accept, and in spite of the fact that the cloud of rebellion was 
hovering over England, he took enough interest in the affairs 
of Virginia to remove Sir Francis Wyatt and appointed Sir 
William Berkeley as Governor. 

Governor Berkeley arrived in the colony in January, 1642, 
and immediately called an Assembly, which petitioned the 
King protesting against the action of George Sandys in trying 
to secure the restoration of the company. It is interesting to 
note that this document, though signed by the Council and 
Burgesses, as well as by Governor Berkeley himself, in its 
preamble alludes to the fact that the sentiment in Virginia 
on this question was greatly changed. As a matter of fact, 
the Virginia people wished to rule themselves, but they were 
not in full accord with the rebellious attitude of the English 



CHARLES I. AND CROMWELLS. 213 

Parliament towards its sovereign. They looked askance at 
a movement fostered and cherished chiefly by the English 
conformists, for the people of Virginia, though containing a 
sprinkling here and there of opponents to the established 
church, believed on the whole in the episcopacy. Moreover, 
many Cavaliers were coming at this period into the colony, 
and were willing to lend their moral support to the King as 
the head of church and state. 

During eight years Berkeley remained as Governor. These 
were the years of the civil war in England. Charles was 
taken prisoner and beheaded. The war having ended dis- 
astrously to the side of the King, the Cavalier element con- 
tinued to come in even greater numbers to America, settling 
in Virginia, which, as the struggle between the King and Par- 
liament continued, had increased in sympathy for the royal 
cruse. On the execution of Charles I. Sir William Berkeley 
denounced the whole proceedings as a cold blooded murder, 
while the General Assembly passed an act declaring that all 
who had taken part against the King or who should defend 
such action should be regarded as guilty of treason, and that 
any one who even doubted the right of his son, Charles II., 
to be recognized as King should also be regarded as a traitor. 

Parliament was not slow in turning its eyes towards the 
colony that was loyal to the English crown. In 1650 it 
adopted an ordinance prohibiting trade with the rebellious 
colony of Virginia, and at once the council of state took meas- 
ures to reduce it to submission. One of the first acts of the 
English Parliament was a navigation act, passed in October, 
1651, which limited the trade of all the colonies to England, 
and thus cut out from Virginia many Dutch vessels. Fol- 
lowing this Parliament ordered a squadron to be got ready 
and sent to subdue the loyalists of Virginia. The expedition 
was commanded by Captain Robert Dennis. Richard Bennett, 



2i 4 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. ' 

William Claiborne and Thomas Stegge were appointed com- 
missioners, along with Dennis, to arrange to subdue the re- 
calcitrant colony. Bennett belonged to the Puritan faction 
of Virginia, which was strong in Nansemond county. Clai- 
borne, of whom we will hear more later, was a member of 
Governor Berkeley's council, but was not friendly with the 
Governor. Captain Stegge sailed with the expedition under 
Captain Dennis. Both were lost in the storm, and the com- 
mand devolved upon Captain Curtis. In January, 1652, the 
expedition reached Virginia, and it was probably at this time 
that Claiborne and Bennett learned of their appointment to 
serve as commissioners. 

We are told that old Berkeley, game cock that he was, on 
seeing the approach of the English force called out the militia 
of the colony, at that time twelve hundred strong, and per- 
suaded some Dutch vessels, then in English waters, to arm 
themselves for resistance. These vessels had no right, under 
the navigation act, to be in Virginia waters, and were liable 
to be seized and confiscated by the English government. We 
are told that every preparation was made for resistance at 
Jamestown, but before any shots were passed a party from 
the British force came ashore and proceeded to ask for ne- 
gotiations. The commissioners, on the arrival of the English 
force, had not gone at once to Jamestcwn, but had first issued 
a proclamation, which was sent to various parts of the colony, 
stating that their purpose was not to make war, but only t) 
ask that the people of Virginia should recognize the Common- 
wealth in England. This proclamation had its effect, and when 
the party for negotiation landed at Jamestown, though Berke- 
ley had troops and vessels ready for fight, the commissioners 
had no difficulty in persuading the Council and Burgesses to 
recognize parliamentary government and to promise to pass 
no statute contrary to the laws of England. Articles of sur- 



CHARLES I. AND CROMWELLS. 215 

render were drawn up between the Commonwealth of Eng- 
land, represented by Bennett, Curtis and Claiborne, and Vir- 
ginia, represented by the Grand Assembly of the Governor, 
Council and Burgesses of Virginia. It was in reality more of 
a treaty than a surrender, for the commissioners agreed that 
the General Assemly should transact the affairs of Virginia, 
and that the Commonwealth of England should acknowledge 
all of the bounds and limits granted to Virginia by the char- 
ters of the former Kings. Moreover, they agreed that Vir- 
ginia should have free trade and should be "free from all taxes, 
customs and impositions whatsoever, and none to be imposed 
on them without the consent of one Grand Assembly." Old 
Berkeley accepted the verdict and q'.iietly retired to his coun- 
try home. The Virginia Assembly shortly afterwards pro- 
ceeded to elect as Governor Richard Bennett, the Puritan. 

When Harvey was thrust out, the Council, with the ap- 
proval of the House of Burgesses, had requested Captain 
West to act as Governor, awaiting the pleasure of His Majesty, 
the King. But now the Assembly did not await the pleasure 
of the Commonwealth, but deliberately elected a Governor. 
For eight years the government of the colony was entirely 
in the hands of the Assembly, and during this period three 
different Governors were elected. 

At the time of the coming of me commissioners Virginia 
was a prosperous colony. There were thirteen counties along 
the James River and York River, 'ncluding the Eastern Shore 
and Lancaster county on the Rappahannock, and Northumber- 
land county on the Potomac. Settlements had not reached 
the head of tidewater, however, at any place except at the 
falls of the James, where Richmond now stands. It is hard to 
estimate the population at this period, but the rapid influx of 
Cavaliers and refugees from England had probably brought 
the population to some twenty thousand, of whom six thou- 
sand were indented servants and five hundred negro slaves. 



216 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

During the Commonwealth period, when Virginia was 
ruled by a Governor elected by its own Assembly, we are not 
to assume that all of the people were in accord with the new 
government, for the Puritan element was now in the ascen- 
danc3^. This was an unpleasant morsel to the Cavalier ele- 
ment of Virginia. Berkeley, at Old Green Springs, spoke lit- 
tle and suppressed many a hostile feeling. Some, however, 
were outspoken against the government and were arrested 
and punished. Moreover, the government during this time 
was regarded as provisional, and it was not known at what 
time Oliver Cromwell, the Protector of England, would undo 
everything which the Assembly was doing. Still the House 
of Burgesses was very jealous of its rights. Worthy of note 
was the controversy with Governor Samuel Mathews, who 
demanded to be admitted as a member of the Assembly, 
from which he was excluded. Thereupon, after royal fashion, 
he dissolved the Burgesses. The House of Burgesses very 
promptly refused to obey his order, believing that a creature 
of their will had no right to dissolve them, and declared that 
any Burgess who departed would be regarded as a traitor to 
the cause which he represented. Mathews yielded somewhac 
and recalled his dissolution, and said he would refer the whole 
matter to the Lord Protector in England. With this answer 
the Burgesses were dissatisfied and so informed the Governor, 
and above all made this bold assertion, "that they were rep- 
resentatives of the people, not dissolvable by any power yet 
extant in Virginia but their own." They thereupon removed 
the Governor, and on his yielding absolutely the right of 
dissolution, he was reappointed. Thus it appears that Vir- 
ginia's representatives, even in the seventeenth century, were 
very jealous of their prerogatives. 

In a short time came word that Oliver Cromwell was dead, 
and that the English government was in a chaotic state, 



CHARLES I. AND CROMWELLS. 217 

Richard Cromwell being a weak ruler. Governor Mathews 
had in the meantime died. What did the Virginians do? 
The exact steps are not known in minute detail. We do 
know, however, that the Assemblv did elect Sir William 
Berkeley as Governor, but in doing so declared that since 
there was no recognized government in England the 
supreme government of the colony should rest in the Assem- 
bly, and that all writs should be issued in the name of the 
Grand Assembly. What led to the election of Berkeley is 
not definitely known. Some say that the Cavalier element 
in Virginia, having enough of Puritan government, had over- 
thrown it by the election of an Assembly favorable to Charles 
II., and that this Assembly had invited Charles to come to 
Virginia and be King, and that because of the promise to 
him of a crown in Virginia he had socken of it as his "Old 
Dominion," the term that has come down to this day, and 
that because of this invitation the King afterwards ordered 
that the Virginia shield should be inscribed "En dat Virginia 
quiantum." We know that Berkeley was elected Governor 
two months before Charles was restored to the throne, but 
there is nowhere mention in the laws of the Assembly of 
the words "King" or "Majesty," until four months after 
Charles II. had been restored. A.s far as the records show 
the relation of Virginia to Charles II., we are not able to do 
more than conclude that Virginia was loyal to the crown, but 
made no foolish attempts to establish a monarchy in America 
in opposition to the government of England. That the colony 
had undoubtedly been friendly to the King, he readily ac- 
knowledged when he transmitted to Sir William Berkeley, 
who had always been faithful to him. a new commission as 
Governor of Virginia, dated July 1, 1660. ■ 

Virginia was now a royal province, and from this time 
until the Revolution all of her Governors received their com- 



2i8 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

missions from the crown. The period of transition from a 
colony, established by a trading company, to a full-fledged 
royal province, the period from 1625 to 1660, was in reality 
an eventful one in the colony, and no student of history can 
be but impressed with the independent spirit of the Vir- 
ginians of this time. 

Before closing this chapter dealing with this transitional 
period, it is but right to consider somewhat the relation of 
Virginia with its sister colony Maryland, especially that con- 
troversy in which William Claiborne, an English gentleman 
of the Cavalier type, was so important a factor. Before com- 
ing to Virginia as surveyor-general, Claiborne seems to have 
been a member of the English Parliament, and to have been 
recognized as a man of intellect and ability. In his capacity 
as surveyor-general of the colony he drew the best map of 
Virginia that had been made up to that time. He was a 
strict churchman, and as such he had objected to Lord Balti- 
more's landing at Jamestown in J629, when he came on a 
visit to the American continents, unless His Lordship would 
take the oath of allegiance to the King as head of church 
and state. Claiborne secured a grant for Kent Island in the 
Chesapeake Bay, where he could plant a settlement and 
conduct trade with the Indians. Here he planted a settle- 
ment and was conducting a successful trade with the In- 
dians north of the Potomac River, when Lord Baltimore's 
colony arrived under the direction of his brother, Cecil Cal- 
vert, and planted the Colony of Maryland at St. Mary's. 

Kent Island was included in the territory granted by King 
Charles to Lord Baltimore, and immediately a dispute arose 
between Claiborne's followers and the Catholics of Mary- 
land as to the jurisdiction over this island. This resulted in 
a long controversy. The Virginians agreed with Claiborne 
that Lord Baltimore's grant was really an invasion of their 



CHARLES I. AND CROMWELLS. 219 

rights. Of course, to declare war against a colony planted 
with the consent of the King was more than the Virginians 
themselves were willing to undertake, but Claiborne himself 
protested to Charles I., who authorized Lord Baltimore in 
no way to interfere with Claiborne's colony. But before the 
Marylanders received these instructions, with two pinnaces 
they had invaded Kent Island and had driven away Claiborne's 
settlers. This decision of the King seemed to settle the mat- 
ter. However, the Maryland government, though it had 
failed to take Claiborne prisoner, caused him to be indicted 
and convicted of murder and piracy, and his personal pro- 
perty on the island was seized and appropriated to Lord Bal- 
timore's use. He thereupon went to England and appealed 
to the King, who referred the whole question to the "Lords 
Commissioners of Plantations." After some delay they gave 
the whole of Kent Island to Lord Baltimore, and left to Clai- 
borne as his only redress an appeal to the courts. 

Claiborne now returned to Virginia and attempted to 
regain some of his personal property, but the Maryland gov- 
ernment claimed that he had forfeited it. He thereupon set- 
tled down to a quiet life in Virginia, and in 1642 Charles I., 
as a conciliatory measure, made him treasurer of Virginia 
for life. In his controversy, Claiborne seemed to have had 
the support of the people of Virginia at large, but of course 
the Governors always took the part of Lord Baltimore. 
Hardly had Claiborne become treasurer of the colony before 
civil war in England was being waged. Strange to say, 
Claiborne, though a Cavalier, joined himself to the Puritan 
party. This policy was undoubtedly determined upon because 
of his desire to recover Kent Island. About this time, 1644, 
the Catholic government of Maryland was overthrown by 
Captain Richard Ingle. Many have claimed that Claiborne 
was responsible for this rebellion in Maryland, but of this 



220 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

there is no proof. Governor Calvert fed to Virginia and the 
next year returned to Maryland with a force furnished him by 
Governor Berkeley and re-established himself in Maryland. 

When the Commonwealth was established in England, and 
Claiborne, Bennett and others were appointed as Parlia- 
mentary Commissioners to reduce Vitginia, they were like- 
wise requested to reduce to submission the Colony of Mary- 
land. By these commissioners Governor Stone was removed 
and the government of Maryland was put in the hands of the 
Council. It was Claiborne's purpose now to assert his rights 
on Kent Island. News, however, came that Cromwell had 
prorogued the English Parliament, whereupon Stone rose in 
rebellion and declared that the authority under which Clai- 
borne had acted no longer governed him. Immediately Clai- 
borne returned to Maryland, seized the government and called 
an Assembly, which disfranchised the Catholics. The Lord Pro- 
tector Cromwell then took a hand in the controversy and tried 
to straddle the fence : namely, to recognize Lord Baltimore's 
rights and at the same time to approve of the proceedings 
of the commissioners who had reduced Maryland to submis- 
sion to the Commonwealth of England. Thereupon civil war 
broke out again in Maryland. Stone attacked the government, 
which was in the hands of the Claibornites, and a battle took 
place at the mouth of the Severn River, near the present site 
of Annapolis. Stone's followers were utterly routed, and we 
are told that Papist heads were strewn over the battlefield, 
and that the Jesuit Fathers were hotly pursued and escaped 
to Virginia, where they inhabited a mean, low hut. Twenty 
persons were killed, and several persons were tried and con- 
clemned to death by court-martial, and four of the principals, 
one of them a councilor, were executed on the spot. Governor 
Stone was likewise sentenced, but on the intercession of some 
women his life was spared. This was a severe blow to Lord 



CHARLES I. AND CROMWELLS. 221 

Baltimore's government in Maryland, and the Catholics, who 
had been responsible for the settlement, were deprived of any 
voice in the government. Lord Baltimore then appealed to 
Cromwell, who finally settled the whole controversy in favor 
of His Lordship. Thus Claiborne was forced, after a struggle 
twenty-four years, to retire from Maryland and to give up his 
claims on Kent Island. 

William Claiborne continued as secretary of the Colony of 
Virginia until 1660, having been elected to this place by the 
same Assembly that elected Bennett Governor in 1652. When 
Charles II. was restored to the throne and Berkeley again be- 
came Governor of Virginia, Claiborne retired to private life 
in New Kent County, which county he had organized and 
named after Kent Island. In 1660 he was elected a member 
of that House of Burgesses which Berkeley kept in power 
for sixteen years. In 1675 he presented a petition to Charles 
II. in which he showed that in his attempt to settle Kent 
Island he had lost six thousand pounds, and he begged the 
King that Lord Baltimore might De forced to make restoration 
for this loss. To this petition Charles paid no attention. All 
of Claiborne's friends in England were now dead and he had 
no one to help him. Claiborne probably died in 1676, in the 
midst of Bacon's Rebellion, at the age of eighty-seven. He 
left three sons, from whom many of the best people of Vir- 
ginia claim descent. 

Claiborne has wrongly been called a rebel. His action in 
overthrowing the Maryland government was done in accord- 
ance with instructions which he nad received from England. 
His long and vigorous fight for his rights to Kent Island was 
not a rebellious action, but a protest against the vacillating 
policy of the crown in the granting of charters and in making 
large gifts of land to favorites. The Virginians, not. many 
years after, had reason to recall the wisdom of Claiborne's pro- 






222 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

test, and to deplore the system pursued by the King in grant- 
ing land. 

In concluding this chapter it is weli to remember that the 
years 1625 to 1660 were important ones in Virginia history. 
On the part of the crown and the royal Governors efforts 
were made to ignore the charter rights of the Virginians. 
These were days of trial to the inhabitants of the colony, but 
they rose to the occasion with a bravery characteristic of 
Virginians in succeeding years and stood firmly by the right 
as they saw it. The restoration of Charles II. to the throne 
of England and the reappointment of Sir William Berkeley 
as Governor prepared the way for a complete ignoring of 
these rights, of which the story will be told in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

BACON'S REBELLION. 

The restoration of Charles II. to the throne of England 
and the reappointment of Sir William Berkeley as Governor 
of Virginia marked the beginning of a new era in the colony. 
From this time until the Revolution there was a constant 
growth in population and wealth, though the rights of the 
people were frequently disregarded by the royal governors as 
representatives of the King. The ten years from 1642 to 1652, 
in which Berkeley ruled in Virginia, did not clearly indicate to 
the Virginians the character of their Governor. In those days 
he was a young man, every inch an aristocrat and a litterateur. 
He was a graduate of Oxford University and fellow of Merton 
College. He had been closely associated with all the literary 
men of England and had written plays which were acted in 
the London theatres. But though a man of culture, he had 
narrow views as to the rights of the common people, and in 
religious matters he was a thorough bigot. He had been 
anxious to drive from Virginia all Quakers and Puritans, and 
had caused the House of Burgesses to pass a law to the ef- 
fect that all ministers whatsoever ''are to be conformable to 
the orders and constitutions of the Church of England and the 
laws therein described, and not otherwise be admitted to teach 
or preach publicly or privately; and that the Governor and 
Council should take care that all non-cor.formists shall be com- 
pelled to depart from the colony with all convenience." More- 
over, he caused the House of Burgesses to pass a strenuous 

223 



224 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

law against the Quakers, whom he caused to be sent out of 
the colony. This law declared that all vessels bringing' Quakers 
to Virginia were to be fined one hundred pounds of tobacco, 
and any person entertaining a Quaker should be compelled to 
pay one hundred pounds sterling. Still, he had somewhat en- 
deared himself to the people of Virginia by his decision of 
character, and he was respected as a brave soldier, because 
he had led a force against the Indians in 1644 and quickly 
suppressed the insurrection headed by Opechancanough. 

In 1660 Berkeley started upon a new career. He deter- 
mined to do in Virginia what Charles II. was doing in Eng- 
land, namely, to rule according to his own ideas, without much 
reference to the wishes of the people. He secured the election 
in that year of a House of Burgesses composed of two repre- 
sentatives from each of the twenty counties in the colony and 
of one representative from Jamestown, a large majority of 
whom were favorable to his methods of government. With 
these Burgesses he and the sixteen Councilors of state sat, con- 
stituting the General Assembly that held power for sixteen 
years. During these sixteen years, however, he did not call 
the Burgesses frequently to consider the state of affairs of the 
colony, and consequently there grew up in all parts of the 
cclony a strong feeling of dissatisfaction, which was soon 
to result in open rebellion on the part of some of the liberty- 
loving Virginians. 

There is preserved an interesting document, a report which 
Berkeley made to the Commissioners of Plantations in Eng- 
land in 1671. It is a report on the condition of the colony at 
that time. A synopsis of this report brought out the follow- 
ing facts: 

That Virginia was ruled by a Governor, sixteen Coun- 
cilors and the Burgesses, composed of two representatives 
from each county; that in twenty-eight years only one prize 



BACON'S REBELLION. 225 

had been captured on the high seas ; that there was a militia 
composed of eight thousand ; that there were five forts to 
protect the frontiers against the Indians; that the colony was 
not molested by privateers, and that the Indians were abso- 
lutely subjucated. The Governor complained that while Vir- 
ginia had originally been a territory embracing ten degrees 
of latitude, the King had limited it to half a degree. Of the 
commodities of the country he reported: "We never had any 
but tobacco, which in this yet is considerable, that it yields 
His Majesty a great revenue; but of late, we have begun to 
make silk and are shipping masts, and very good oaks and 
have enough iron ore to keep one mill going for seven years.'' 
The population of the colony he reported as forty thousand, 
of whom two thousand were black slaves and six thousand 
indented servants. The number of ships carrying tobacco to 
England yearly was about eighty, but the navigation laws 
worked hardships to the colony, and the trade could not in- 
crease unless these laws were modified. A tax of two shill- 
ings was raised on every hogshead of tobacco exported, and 
in 1670 fifteen thousand hogsheads were taxed. On educa- 
tion and the condition of the church, he reported: 

"The same course that is taken in England out of towns ; 
every man according to his ability instructing his children. 
We have fifty-eight parishes, and our ministers are well paid, 
and by my consent should be better if they would pray oftener 
and preach less. But of all other commodities, so of this, the 
worst are sent us, and we had few that we could boast of, 
since the persecution in Cromwell's tyranny drove divers 
worthy men hither. But, I thank God, there are no free 
schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hun- 
dred years. For learning has brought disobedience and 
heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged 
them, and libels against the best government. God keep us 
from both" 1 



226 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

The last clause of his report tells the story of his character, 
namely, that he did not believe in the education of the poor 
at the expense of the government, but that every man should 
educate his own children. 

About 1670 there arrived in Virginia a man about twenty- 
four years of age. This was Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., the son 
of an English gentleman, Thomas Bacon, and probably a kins- 
man of Lord Francis Bacon, the English philosopher. Young 
Bacon was educated at Oxford University and had traveled 
extensively in Europe. As far as history narrates, he was 
well versed in English politics. Upon reaching manhood he 
married a daughter of Sir Edward Duke and thus incurred 
the anger of his father. He thereupon shipped for Virginia, 
where he soon took a prominent part in the affairs of the 
colony and became a leader among the younger men. 

Everything was not quiet in Virginia when Bacon reached 
the colony. The planters complained bitterly concerning the 
navigation act of 1651, by which goods carried into England 
should be transported only in English ships. The trade which 
Virginia had with the Dutch was a profitable one, and the 
Virginians saw it die with bitterness in their hearts. A 
second navigation act was passed in the reign of Charles II. 
of the same kind, providing that no goods should either be 
shipped to or from England except in British built vessels. 
Neither could any of the products raised in the colony be 
shipped to any place but ports in England, Ireland or some 
other port under the British flag. This meant that whatever 
tobacco was raised in Virginia to supply the demands of 
European countries would have to go through English ports, 
and thus the Virginians were placed entirely in the hands of 
the English merchants, who bought at a low price and in 
return sold their goods at exorbitant rates. In vain did the 
settlers protest that this action was unbecoming and tyran- 



BACON'S REBELLION. 227 

nous, especially if the mother country did not pay all the ex- 
penses of her colonies at home. It was proposed by some of 
the planters that the crops of tobacco should be reduced, but 
of course this meant a reduction of the resources of the 
planters. 

Added to the strong feeling that the Virginians thus had 
against the English government for restricting their trade, 
there came into existence a distrust of the royal Governor, 
Sir William Berkeley, especially about 1672, after he had kept 
one Assembly since 1661. Moreover, his autocratic nature 
bore hard upon the people who had imbibed a spirit of lib- 
erty, which necessarily existed in a new country. Some of 
the colonists also thought that Berkeley was somewhat re- 
sponsible for the large grants of land that Charles II. so 
freely gave to favorites. Then another cause of discontent 
was the fact that the Governor was engaged privately in 
trade with the Indians, and consequently he was slow to 
take steps against the Indians on the frontier when they, 
pillaged and stole the property of the planters. 

The year 1675 pointed to serious trouble of some kind, 
according to the report of some Virginians who were super- 
stitious, for in this year occurred three wonderful things. 
First of all, a large comet was seen every evening for a week, 
streaming like a horse's tail across the heavens. To the super- 
stitious, a comet indicated war. This phenomenon was fol- 
lowed by great flights of pigeons in such flocks that the sky 
was darkened and the limbs of laige trees were broken down 
at night when the pigeons went to roost. A third strange 
sight was a swarm of flies about an inch long and the size of 
a man's little finger, and had the letter "W" on their wings, 
which was interpreted to mean war. These flies, which were 
probably locusts, came out of the grouni and ate all of the 
leaves from the trees. 



228 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

But to return to the narrative : In 1675 some Indians dwell- 
ing - in Stafford county, just across the Rappahannock River 
from Fredericksburg, stole some pigs of one of the settlers. 
One or two of the Indians were shot, and the Indians then 
retaliated by killing a herdsman. At once the county lieu- 
tenant called all of the force of Staffoid, pursued the Indians 
and killed about eleven of them. Unfortunately, the Indians 
killed were not the guilty ones. War having broken out in 
Maryland against the Susquehannocks, a body of Virginia 
troops, under the command of Colonel John Washington, 
went to the assistance of their Maiyland brethren. Some 
Indian envoys who were sent to negotiate with the whites 
were, against all the rules of war, put to death by the troops 
commanded by Major Thomas Truman, leader of the Mary- 
landers. Almost immediately Virginia was filled with infu- 
riated Susquehannocks, who began to pillage on the frontier 
from the head of tidewater on the Potomac to the falls of 
the James. In January, 1676, in a single day, thirty-six per- 
sons were murdered. When Berkeley was informed of this 
deed he said that nothing could be done until the Virginia 
Assembly met, in March of that year. At length, when Mardi 
came, the "Long Assembly" was called. A force of five hun- 
dred troops were gathered, but Berkeley, without any expla- 
nation, disbanded the army, saying that the frontier forts, if 
properly equipped, would furnish all the protection that the 
inhabitants needed. Then it was that Nathaniel Bacon loomed 
up as a leader. He was said to be a free thinker, but a man 
who impressed the people, and he drew around him a wily 
Scotchman, William Drummond, who had been Governor of 
the Albemarle colony in Carolina, and Richard Lawrence, a 
graduate of Oxford, who was designated as "Thoughtful Mr. 
Lawrence." Both of these gentlemen were wealthy men for 
that day and generation, and are said to have had the best 



BACON'S REBELLION. 229 

homes on Jamestown Island. Bacon himself lived on his 
plantation at Curl's Neck, about fifteen miles from Richmond. 
In discussing- Berkeley's attitude towards the Indian trou- 
bles, we are told that Bacon exclaimed, "If the red skins 
meddle with me, damn my blood but I will harrow them, 
commission or no commission." 

In 1676 some Indians attacked Bacon's plantation and 
killed his overseer and one of his servants. The planters 
from the neighborhood assembled. Bacon took the lead and 
sent a courier to Governor Berkeley to ask for a commission. 
Berkeley did not grant the commission, though Bacon in- 
terpreted his reply as favorable, and wrote him thanking him 
for his promised commission. 

Hardly, however, had Bacon proceeded on his way with 
his armed force of over five hundred men before news 
reached them that the Governor had proclaimed all who con- 
tinued with Bacon as rebels. Thereupon most of the planters 
returned home, but some fifty-seven continued in arms and 
with Bacon attacked the Indians near Richmond and de- 
feated them in a bloody battle in which about one hundred 
and fifty Indians were slain. In the meantime Berkeley had 
gathered a force and had taken the field against the young 
Englishman who presumed to proceed without his sanction. 
But suddenly came news from across the York River that the 
people of Gloucester were in arms and ready to join with 
Bacon. Then the Governor^, upon the advice of his Council, 
issued writs for the election of a new House of Burgesses to 
supersede the "Long Assembly" which had now existed tor 
sixteen years. Bacon's friends rallied around him and elected 
him as a Burgess from Henrico county. If we can rely upon 
the reports of the time, in various parts of the colony many 
men voted though they were not qualified legally, not own- 
ing a freehold as required by the law that the previous As- 
sembly had passed in 1670. 



230 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

As the time for the meeting 1 of the new House of Bur- 
gesses approached, Bacon journeyed towards Jamestown from 
his plantation at Curl's in his sail boat, accompanied by some 
thirty of his friends and adherents. On reaching Jamestown 
he was arrested by the high sheriff and taken at once to the 
capitol and carried into the presence of the stern and harsh 
Berkeley. The report is that the Governor said to him, 
rather mildly, "Mr. Bacon, have you forgotten to be a gentle- 
man?" "No, may it please your honor," replied the young 
rebel. "Very well," said the Governor, "then I will take your 
parole." Doubtless this was a great surprise to Bacon, and 
the only conclusion that we can reach for the Governor's 
gentle treatment was his fear of the people, in view of the 
fact that a majority of the Burgesses returned from the dif- 
ferent counties were not of his party, but belonged to the 
liberal element in the colony. Bacon went upon his release 
to the house of his friend, Richard Lawrence. After Bacon's 
parole the question arose what should be done. He was 
still a prisoner. His friends were in a state of consternation, 
and on all sides was heard among the Burgesses and the hun- 
dred inhabitants of Jamestown expressions doubtful as to 
the outcome. No one seemed to realize that there would be 
an outbreak, and his friends were saying, "All's over; Bacon 
is taken." It was generally understood that if Bacon would 
acknowledge his offense and beg the pardon of the Governor, 
his previous resistance to Governor Berkeley would be en- 
tirely overlooked. 

In the Council there was another Nathaniel Bacon, Berke- 
ley's friend and the "rebel's" cousin. By this relative Bacon 
was persuaded, against his will, to offer an apology to Gov- 
ernor Berkeley for having proceeded against the Indians 
without a commission. When the Assembly met, the Gov- 
ernor rose and said, "If there be 'joy in the presence of angeis 



BACON'S REBELLION. 231 

over one sinner that repenteth,' there is joy now, for we have 
a penitent sinner come before us." Turning to the sergeant- 
at-arms, he said, "Call Mr. Bacon.' 1 ' Bacon appearing, bowed 
on one knee before the Governor, delivered into his hands a 
paper confessing his crimes, and begged pardon of God, the 
King and the Governor. Berkeley then said, "God forgive 
you. I forgive you and all that were with you." Though 
the Governor stated that he forgave all, twenty of the men 
who had gone in arms with Bacon wei e at that time in prison. 
Affairs now grew quiet, and the friends of Bacon even felt 
that the Governor had been lenient. Bacon occupied his seat 
in the House of Burgesses. It was soon seen that this new 
Assembly was determined to reform the government. Under 
Bacon's influence it proceeded to pass a number of laws deal- 
ing with the abuses which the colonists had to undergo dur- 
ing Berkeley's administration. The Governor felt disturbed, 
and was constantly afraid that an open discussion of the con- 
dition of the colony would bring injury to himself. The 
Burgesses insisted that no member of the Council should sit 
with them, though it had always been customary up to that 
time that the Burgesses and the Councilors should sit as one 
body. However, the Governor carried his point and certain 
Councilors did sit with the Burgesses. The Assembly pro- 
ceeded at once to repeal the law of 1670 restricting suffrage; 
declared that vestrymen should be elected by a popular vote, 
and that the sheriff should not be appointed for a term of 
more than one year, and that he should not hold any other 
office. They abolished those privileges which exempted all 
Councilors and clergymen and their families from taxation. 
They passed a resolution providing for the maintenance of 
an army of one thousand men to keep the Indians in subjec- 
tion. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but under- 
neath there was a strong current of discontent on the part of 



232 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Berkeley and his adherents, because the Baconians were in 
the saddle. 

A few days later Jamestown was astir. The report was 
abroad, "Bacon is fled! Bacon is fled!" Berkeley had made 
promises to Bacon which he was unwilling- to keep, and it 
was rumored that even attempts were to be made upon the 
life of the young rebel. Bacon went up the river, raised a 
force of about four hundred men, and after four days led them 
into Jamestown to demand by force a commission allowing 
them to fight the Indians. Berkeley at first refused, and, 
when Bacon's troops surrounded the capitol building shout- 
ing, "We'll have it ! We'll have it !" the Governor was greatly 
incensed. He came out of the capitol and, baring his breast 
before Bacon and his men, said, "Here, shoot me ! 'Fore God, 
fair mark, shoot!" 

To this Bacon replied: "No, may it please your honor, 
we will not hurt a hair of your head, or any other man's. 
We are come for a commission to save our lives from the 
Indians, which you have so often promised, and now we will 
have it before we go." 

It seems that the Governor was 'slow to grant the com- 
mission and went into the capitol to consult his Councilors. 
It is reported that Bacon and his men surrounded the build- 
ing and swore that they would have a commission or kill the 
Governor and the Councilors. Whether that be true or not, 
with much reluctance the Governor granted the commission 
and soon thereafter dissolved the House of Burgesses. But 
before this dissolution the Assembly had drawn up a petition 
to the King setting forth the grievances of the colony and 
eulogizing Bacon as a faithful citizen who had at heart the 
interests of Virginia. 

Hardly had Bacon started for the forests with about a 
thousand men before Berkeley proclaimed Bacon a rebel 



BACON'S REBELLION. 233 

and traitor, and collected an army of twelve hundred men to 
seize him. Hearing of Berkeley's action, Bacon turned back 
to meet him, but the Governor, finding himself deserted 
by all but a few hundred of his men, sailed away to Accomac, 
Thereupon Bacon led his troops to Middle Plantation, the site 
of the present city of Williamsburg. Here he held a confer- 
ence with his friends and discussed what should be done. 
William Drummond advised him to depose Berkeley. Bacon's 
first step, however, was to issue a manifesto, in which he 
said : 

"If virtue be a sin, if piety be guilt, if all the principles 
of morality, goodness and justice be perverted, we must con- 
fess that those who are now called rebels may be in danger 
of those high imputations. Those loud and several bulls 
would affright innocents, and render the defense of our breth- 
ren and the inquiry into cur sad and heavy oppressions Trea- 
son. But if there be (as sure there is) a just God to appeal 
to, if religion and justice be a sanctuary here, if to plead the 
cause of the oppressed, if sincerely to aim at His Majesty's 
honor and the public good without any reservation or by- 
interest, if to stand in the gap after sc much blood of our 
dear brethren bought and sold, if after the loss of a great part 
of His Majesty's colony deserted and dispeopled, freely with 
our lives and estates to endeavor to save the remainders, be 
treason — God Almighty judge and let the guilty die. But 
since we cannot in our hearts find one single spot of rebellion 
or treason, or that we have in any manner aimed at subvert- 
ing the settled government or attempting of the person of any 
either magistrate or private man, notwithstanding the sev- 
eral reproaches and threats of some who for sinister ends weri 
disaffected to us and censured our innocent and honest de- 
signs, and since all people in all places where we have yet 
been can attest our civil, quiet, peaceable behavior, far dif- 



234 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

ferent from that of rebellious and tumultuous persons, let 
Truth be bold and all the world know the real foundations 
of pretended guilt. We appeal to the country itself, what and 
of what nature their oppressions have been, or by what cabal 
and mystery the designs of many of those whom we call great 
men have been transacted and carried on." He indicted Sir 
William Berkeley for raising unjust taxes for the advance- 
ment of favorites, for not having provided for the colony for- 
tifications, towns or trade, for having rendered the majesty 
of the law contemptible by placing ignorant favorites in re- 
sponsible positions, for having assumed the monopoly of the 
beaver trade, and for having refused to protect the people of 
Virginia against the invasions and murders committed by the 
Indians. He ended his manifesto by demanding that Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley and his followers should be arrested and kept 
at Middle Plantation until the King of England should render 
a decision as to the state of affairs in Virginia. A few days 
later he held a meeting of many of the prominent citizens at 
Middle Plantation, and he submitted an oath to which they 
should subscribe, namely, that they would give military aid 
against Berkeley. They subscribed themselves, however, as 
faithful subjects of the King. Thereupon, in the name of the 
King, they issued writs signed by four Councilors for the 
election of a House- of Burgesses. After this proceeding 
Bacon returned to the wilderness and defeated the Appomat- 
tox Indians near where Petersburg now stands. 

A resort to arms was necessary to decide the differences 
between Bacon and Berkeley. In order to carry out the an- 
nouncement of his manifesto, Bacon sent to Accomac Giles 
Bland, with four vessels, to arrest Berkeley, but Colonel 
Philip Ludwell, one of Berkeley's supporters, who married 
Lady Frances Berkeley on the death of Sir William, suc- 
ceeded in capturing Bland and putting him into irons. 



BACON'S REBELLION. 235 

In the meantime Berkeley returned to Jamestown and 
fortified the place. Besides the capitol building and a church, 
Jamestown at that time contained sixteen or eighteen houses, 
most of them built of brick, but not all occupied, since there 
was not more than a dozen families on the island. The in- 
habitants of the place made their living chiefly by keeping 
boarding-houses for the Burgesses and the officials who had 
to live at the capital. The town was very easy to defend, but 
Bacon succeeded in taking it by an act which certainly was 
lacking in gallantry. He sent soldiers through the neighboring 
community to bring to his camp some six or eight ladies 
whose husbands were with Berkeley in the town. One of 
these was sent to inform her husband and the other follow- 
ers of Berkeley that Bacon would place the ladies in front of 
his men if Berkeley should make a sally from the town. 
With these ladies to protect his troops, Bacon completed his 
intrenchments, and Berkeley's soldiers did not dare to fire 
for fear that they might hurt the women. It is stated, how- 
ever, that Berkeley's men did make one attempt to drive 
Bacon back. This was in vain, for Bacon's followers were 
ready to lay down their lives, so stirred were they by the 
fervor and eloquence of the appeals of their leader. The 
King's commissioners appointed to inquire into the affairs of 
the colony after the rebellion had been crushed reported the 
following as a specimen of Bacon's oratory: 

"Gentlemen and Fellow Soldiers, how I am transported 
with gladness to find you thus unanimous, bold and daring, 
brave and gallant. You have the victory before the fight, 
the conquest before the battle. . . . Your hardiness will 
invite all the country along as we march to come in and sec- 
ond you . . . The ignoring of their actions cannot but 
so much reflect upon their spirit, as they will have no cour- 
age left to fight you. I know you have the prayers and well 



236 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

wishes of all the people in Virginia, while the others are 
loaded with their curses. Come on, my hearts of gold ; he 
that dies in the field lies in the bed of honor!" 

Berkeley's men were no match for Bacon's tried soldiers, 
and they fled to Accomac, and Bacon entered Jamestown 
and burned it. Lawrence and Drummond, two of Bacon's 
followers whose residences were in Jamestown, were the 
leaders in the burning of the place and applied the torches 
to their own homes. The King's commissioners reported 
that many men now suffered at Bacon's hands. He shot one 
pf his own deserters, kept in orison men like Richard Lee 
and Sir Henry Chicheley, and caused to be plundered the 
homes of Philip and Thomas Ludwell, Daniel Park and Rob- 
ert Beverley. Among those especially mentioned as one who 
said little of his losses, though they were great, was Colonel 
Augustin Warner, the great-grandfather of George Wash- 
ington, and among the delinquents was John Washington, an- 
other great-grandfather of George Washington. The Indians 
were also driven into the woods, even those who had been 
friendly to the colony, among them being the Queen of the 
Pamunkeys, who was plundered of all that she had, while her 
people were made prisoners. His soldiers are said to have 
plundered the estate of his cousin, Nathaniel Bacon, the elder. 

Shortly after this Bacon went into Gloucester county, 
where the people, he had heard, were in sympathy with 
Berkeley. As a test of their allegiance, he called upon them 
to take an oath against Berkeley, and many complied with 
this request. While in Gloucester he was taken ill at the 
house of a friend, Mr. Pate, and here he died, the first day 
of October, 1676. His enemies spread it abroad that he was 
an excessive drinker and that his death was due to this cause, 
but this report was, beyond a doubt, false. Bacon died pro- 
bably from fever. 



BACON'S REBELLION. 237 

According to all accounts Bacon was a young man of 
great native gifts and wide culture. He was a very •per- 
suasive and impressive orator, and had the reputation of be- 
ing able to speak more "sense in a few words" than any other 
man in the colony. 

With Bacon's death ended the rebellion. Berkeley soon 
secured control of the places which Bacon had seized, and 
caused some twenty-three of the latter's followers to be put 
to death. The first person to be executed was Colonel 
Thomas Hansford, who was captured and carried to Acco- 
mac. When brought before the Governor he only requested 
that he might be shot like a soldier, but not hanged like a dog. 
Berkeley scorned to consider the request and caused him to 
be hanged. Hansford has been designated the first native 
martyr to American liberty. When William Drummond, one 
of Bacon's commanders, was captured and brought before 
Berkeley, the hard-hearted old tyrant said: "Mr. Drummond, 
you are very welcome. I am more glad to see you than any 
man in Virginia. Mr. Drummond, you shall be hanged in half 
an hour," and it is reported that the sentence was actually 
carried out inside of two hours. 

A very touching story is told concerning Major Chees- 
man, another of Bacon's followers. It is said that when the 
major was brought before the Governor, he was asked why 
he had joined Bacon, and before he could make a reply his 
wife came in and bowed before Governor Berkeley. She 
declared that she had urged her husband to fight with Bacon, 
and that but for her influence he would not have taken part 
in the rebellion. Upon her bended knees she begged Sir Wil- 
liam to hang her instead of her husband. The Governor, 
furious with her, called her by an insulting name and ordered 
her husband to be thrown into prison, where he soon died 
from bad treatment. 



238 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Berkeley in his punishment of the offenders went too far, 
and finally the King in England listened to the complaints 
that came from Virginia. Moreover the commissioners' re- 
ports showed that Berkeley had been excessively harsh. 
Charles II. is reported to have said: "As I live, the old fool 
has put to death more people in that naked country than I 
did here for the murder of my father." He thereupon recalled 
Sir William Berkeley in 1677 and appointed in his 'stead Sir 
Herbert Jeffries, who was one of the commissioners to re- 
port on the state of the colony. From the rebuke given him 
by the King Berkeley never recovered, and died soon after- 
wards of a broken heart. 

Bacon's Rebellion was the first open attempt at liberty. 
It was a war against English tyranny as exercised by a 
colonial Governor. It was not intended, however, to be a 
real war against England, but only agsinst Berkeley himself. 
It was an effort on the part of the Virginians to manage 
their own affairs in a way that would be for the benefit of 
the colony. There is no doubt that a majority of the Vir* 
ginians believed that Bacon's principles were right, but it i§ 
doubtful whether a majority really favored open rebellion 
against the Governor. We know, however, that the wealthier 
planter class of Virginia were in sympathy with Berkeley, 
and many of them, among them Philip Ludwell, thought that 
Bacon and his followers were what in these modern days 
would be termed socialists. 

Bacon will always be one of Virginia's heroes, because 
he stood for the abolition of privileges, for the overthrow 
of monopolistic ideas, and for equal rights to all freemen. 
He was not far from being a type of the modern American 
leader who proclaims as a fundamental principle, "The peo- 
ple must be heard." 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE PASSING OF JAMESTOWN AND THE RISE OF 
WILLIAMSBURG. 

The story of the rise and of the decline of Jamestown, 
"the cradle of the republic," is most pathetic. From the out- 
set it was a fateful struggle against an environment that made 
failure inevitable. It never really achieved the growth that 
warranted so dignified a title as "James City." It was always, 
even in its most flourishing days, "small, poor and insignifi- 
cant." Its history is a pitiful story of disaster after disaster, 
which resulted finally in its complete abandonment and the 
removal of the capital to the Middle Plantation. 

When Smith left the colony in 1609 it had, according to 
his statement, within the fort besides the church house forty 
or fifty huts. These were of the rudest construction and 
were doubtless built with little regard to the very precise 
plans that had been furnished in the instructions of the Lon- 
don Company. 

By the year 1623 these buildings, instead of having been 
added to, had been diminished, 30 that it is said there were 
only twenty-two dwelling houses in the town besides the pub- 
lic buildings. These dwelling houses were of a more sub- 
stantial sort, and were perhaps capable of accommodating a 
larger population than the forty or fifty wretched huts left 
by John Smith. 

After the Indian massacre of 1622 there was no increase 
in the population of the town and scarcely any progress made 
at all in its improvement. 

239 



240 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

In the year 1636 the Grand Assembly, stimulated by in- 
structions from England, became interested in the improve- 
ment and enlargement of the town. It passed an act grant- 
ing a house lot and a garden plot to every settler who would 
agree to build thereon within six months. This provision, 
however, did not induce any great number of people to leave 
their country homes and seek residence in the capital city. 
In 1638 this act was re-enacted. The latter endeavor seems 
to have been crowned with moderate success, for twelve 
dwellings were built and also a store. Among these was the 
first brick house of the colony. This house was 16x24 feet 
in its ground plan and arrangement. 

When Governor Berkek)'- came to the colony, in 1642, he 
brought very urgent instructions to rebuild the town in 
brick. He set about this task in his usual vigorous fashion. 
As an inducement fori the people to come into the town and 
build brick houses, it was ordered that every person who 
would build a brick house 16x24 ^ eet > with a cellar, would 
have an additional five hundred acres of land to his grant 
of lot and garden plot. 

With all the encouragement given by the Assembly to 
induce people to build in the city, there was still left a great 
many unoccupied lots, some of which were reserved by per- 
sons who, for one reason and another, had not built houses 
thereupon. In 1643 the Assembly ordered that whosoever 
should build on one of these deserted lots would thereby se- 
cure a title to the lot, provided he built of brick and paid 
back taxes. It was provided that even if the owner of such 
a lot would turn up at a later day, he might be allowed to 
select another unimproved lot, but would not be allowed to 
dispossess the person who had built upon his lot. 

In order to stimulate general interest in the capital city 
and to induce regular visitations on the part of people from 



THE PASSING OF JAMESTOWN. 241 

the country districts, a law was passed establishing market 
days in Jamestown on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but this 
expedient likewise proved a failure, and the law was re- 
pealed in 1665. In one of the schemes exploited it was urged 
that the owners of plantations should build in the town near- 
est his plantation a dwelling house in which he and his family 
should reside ; the planter managing his estate by daily visits 
from his residence in the city. It was further urged that on 
Saturday afternoons all servants were to be relieved of their 
work, and that they should be ordered to leave the plantation 
with only a sufficient number left upon each plantation to 
protect it, and to go into the neighboring towns with their 
masters and remain until after the Sabbath had passed. 
This device was recommended as being an expedient which 
would draw into the towns a large number of people, and 
would also furnish an opportunity for religious instruction, 
especially to the servants and slaves on the plantations. It 
was soon found, however, that it was quite impossible to 
carry out such suggestions. 

In 1662 Sir William Berkeley, who had been restored to 
his position as Governor of the colony on the return of the 
Stuarts to power, was commanded to use every endeavor, 
not only to build up Jamestown, but to induce the planters 
to erect a town at some convenient point upon every impor- 
tant river. It was understood, however, that Jamestown 
was to continue to be the seat of the government, and spe- 
cial care was to be taken to see that its interests were safe- 
guarded. The Governor was commanded by the English 
government to build several houses himself in the town, and 
was likewise instructed to say to the members of the Council 
that the English authorities would be greatly pleased if each 
member of the Council would erect a residence at James- 
town. 



242 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

The General Assembly sought by prompt legislation to 
co-operate with the authorities in England and with the Gov- 
ernor and Council in the effort to promote the building of 
the towns in the colony, and especially to build up James- 
town, as the most important of the colonial towns. By spe- 
cial legislation it was sought to make Jamestown the single 
port of entry for the entire colony, making a law that all to- 
bacco should be shipped from that point, and that ships 
bringing supplies for the settlers should not break their cargo 
until Jamestown had been reached. The law that was passed 
in 1662 was most elaborately drawn, and seemed to cover 
every imaginable detail in the great scheme of building up 
towns in Virginia. It provided that towns should be built 
en the York, Rappahannock and Fotomac Rivers, and on 
the Eastern Shore of Virginia. In this act it was provided 
that there should be thirty-two houses in Jamestown. Each 
house was to be constructed of brick and was to be 40x20 
feet, and 18 feet in height. The walls were to be of brick, 
and the roof was to be of tile or slate and was to have a 
pitch of fifteen feet. 

In order to carry out this scheme with as much dispatch 
and thoroughness as possible, each of the seventeen counties 
in Virginia was ordered to build a house at Jamestown at 
its own expense. The most minute care was taken that this 
scheme be put into operation as soon as possible and with as 
little friction as possible. The cost of material, the wages 
of mechanics and laborers, their entertainment at the taverns 
in Jamestown, were all matters of careful legislation. It was 
provided that the tobacco crops of James City, Charles City 
and Surry should be brought to Jamestown. The penalty 
for failure to do this was to be a fine of one thousand pounds 
of tobacco. 

It was furthermore provided that the person and pro- 



THE PASSING OF JAMESTOWN. 243 

perty of every man living - in the town should for two years 
be exempt from every form of legal process, unless it was for 
debt created within the bounds of the city or for the com- 
mission of a capital offense. 

The proceeds coming from the levy of thirty pounds of 
tobacco a head for the building up of towns in Virginia for 
the first year were to be spent in the improvement and ex- 
tension of Jamestown. After the first year these proceeds 
were to be used in the building of towns in Accomac, and 
on the York, Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers. 

As might well be imagined, these various expedients 
proved only moderately successful as far as Jamestown was 
concerned, and provoked widespread dissatisfaction among 
the settlers throughout Virginia. 

In the year 1676, at the outbreak of the Bacon Rebellion, 
there were really only sixteen or eighteen dwellings in the 
town. The church was built of brick and was described as 
being "fair and large." In the sixteen or eighteen dwelling 
houses there were said to be about a dozen families obtaining 
their living by "keeping ordinaries at extraordinary rates." 

In spite of the great and persistent efforts that had been 
made to interest the settlers in Jamestown as the capital 
city, there does not appear to have been among the settlers 
the least pride or interest in the town. The spirit of rebel- 
lion was so rife and strong at the time of the outbreak of 
Bacon and his followers that the town was looked upon as 
being a part of the system against which they were in re- 
bellion. And so when Bacon drove Berkeley out of the town 
the place was reduced to ashes by the soldiers of Bacon, it 
being said that Drummond and Lawrence set fire to their 
own homes. So complete was the destruction of the town 
that when the English, regiments were dispatched to the 
colony to put down the insurrection, they were not able to 
find shelter anywhere in the town, 



244 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

For a number of years after Jamestown's destruction by- 
Bacon, very little was done towards its rehabilitation. There 
was plainly a strong desire among the people to have the 
old town remain as it was — in ashes. They were perfectly 
contented to live in their own separate homes, caring little 
whether the General Assembly had a place to meet in, or 
whether there was a town known as the capital of Virginia. 

When the commissioners came from England to inquire 
into the reasons for the uprising, they recommended that the 
town be rebuilt. When Culpeper was appointed Governor 
he was commanded to rebuild Jamestown and to establish 
there again the executive offices of the colony. And again 
the crown declared that it would be a matter of personal 
satisfaction to him if the members of the Council would 
build houses at Jamestown and dwell there. 

In 1680, after the arrival of Culpeper, it was sought, by 
the passing of an act known as "The Act of Cohabitation," 
to resort again to the scheme of building] up towns in Vir- 
ginia. This act provided that there should be as many towns 
as there were counties, at accessible and convenient places. 
It was designed that these towns should be the centres of 
the social and commercial life of each district. All goods that 
were for sale were to be brought into these towns, and all 
things that the settlers needed to buy must be purchased 
in these towns. If there was any complaint that the expense 
incident to the establishment of a town was too great to be 
borne by any single county, it was provided that two counties 
might unite in building a town at a location convenient to 
the counties involved. This act did not seek to make ports 
of entries at towns built upon the rivers of Virginia, but the 
counties were allowed to select a site as a port of entry most 
convenient to the majority of its inhabitants. There seems 
to have been an honest effort to carry out the provisions of 



THE PASSING OF JAMESTOWN. 245 

this cohabitation act, but in the course of ten years or more 
it was realized that this endeavor to build up towns had gone 
the way of every other effort in that direction. 

In 1690 an act known as "The Act for Ports" was passed. 
This was in essential agreement with the other acts that had 
been passed in the effort to build up towns and to establish 
certain ports of entries. It differed from the other acts only 
in the matters of detail, the general design and purpose being 
the same. Mr. Nicholson, who was then Governor and 
who had taken great interest in the passage of the act, 
openly expressed his dislike for the law the following year 
and sought to secure its repeal. In i6g2-'g^ the statute really 
was suspended by the Assembly, after it had been in opera- 
tion only for several months. It was given as an excuse for 
the suspension of this act that the consent of the authorities 
in England had not been secured to the scheme. The real 
truth, however, is that the people stubbornly refused to be 
dislodged from their plantation life. They insisted that na- 
ture would settle all of these economic questions involved in 
the building up of towns, and never while it was cheaper 
and easier for them to have their own ports of entry, receiv- 
ing goods and shipping goods from their own private wharves, 
would they ever be likely to consent to the abandonment of 
this simple and natural method for any artificial and elaborate 
requirement of the Assembly. 

In 1698 there came another royal communication to the 
effect that Jamestown must be enlarged. But the following 
year the General Assembly passed an act for the establish- 
ment of the city of Williamsburg, nearly eight miles north- 
east of Jamestown ; and for the erection of a Statehouse 
there it provided that the cost thereof should be secured by 
a tax on all slaves imported into the colony, and upon all 
servants brought into the colony not born in England or 
Wales. 



246 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

After the fire of 1698 Jamestown gradually wasted away, 
and twenty-three years later there was nothing left but "an 
abundance of brick rubbish," and three or four good inhabit- 
able houses. In 1807 there were only two dwellings on the 
island, the Jacquelin-Ambler mansion and the Travis mansion. 
In 1861 only the Jacquelin-Ambler mansion remained stand- 
ing, and this was burned during the course of the Civil War. 
This house was afterwards rebuilt, but in 1896 it was again 
destroyed by fire. 

Mr. Young, in perhaps the best and most accurate and 
exhaustive treatment ever given to the site of Jamestown, 
has the following to say with regard to the wasting away of 
the original site of the town, it having been the opinion for 
many years by men presumed to be thoroughly competent, 
that much of the original site of the town had been eaten 
away by the tides and currents of the river: 

"As it is the general opinion that the greater part of the 
ancient town site had been washed away, it will be a pleasant 
surprise to many to learn that this view is erroneous. The 
proof of the error is furnished in the old James City Patent 
Records, which, when properly interpreted, show that but a 
small portion of the town site has been destroyed and that 
the quarter called the 'new town' has not been encroached 
upon to any appreciable extent by the river." 

There seems to have been no special ceremony in con- 
nection with the transfer of the seat of government from 
Jamestown to Williamsburg. It must, however, have been 
with mingled emotions of regret and satisfaction that the old 
capital was abandoned. One wonders if these people had any 
appreciation of the important place which the straggling vil- 
lage was forever to hold in the annals of civilization. 

Here it was that the English first found a permanent foot- 
hold on the new continent ; here was the cradle in which the 



THE PASSING OF JAMESTOWN. 247 

infant nation was rocked and nourished ; here the star of em- 
pire took up its journey westward, from Orient to Occident, 
in the continental sweep of America's growth and civiliza- 
tion; here was inaugurated the first American commerce, 
which now crosses every sea and reaches every distant shore; 
here was established the first legislative assembly on the new 
continent, where was promulgated with increasing clearness 
and insistence those great principles of human rights and lib- 
erty that gave birth to the American republic, the consum- 
mate flower of democracy; here first fell the shadow of Afri- 
can slavery, the deep problems of which still wait for ultimate 
solution; here was erected the first Protestant Christian 
church, whose persistent and pervasive influence has stamped 
ours as a Christian nation. 

When one considers the influence for the world's better- 
ment and emancipation that went forth from this insignificant 
village, one is reminded of the obscure village that nestles 
among the Judean hills of Palestine, of which the hymnologist 
sang: 

"O little town of Bethlehem! 
How still we see thee lie. 
Above thy deep and dream-like sleep 
The silent star s go by. 

"Yet in thy dark streets shineth 
The Everlasting Light; 
The hopes and fears of all the years 
Are met in thee to-night." 



The Mjddle Plantation, to which the capital was removed 
by reason of the formal act of the Assembly in 1699, was a 
little over seven miles distant from Jamestown, and is de- 
scribed as a "more salubrious situation." It is about midway 
between the York River and the James River. Streams near 



248 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the town find their way, some to the York River and others 
to the James River. 

The provision for the establishment of the new capital 
were made in great elaborateness and detail. It was pro- 
vided first of all that in the town plot there should be re- 
served four hundred and seventy-five square feet of land as 
a site for a Statehouse, with an area of two hundred feet in 
all directions to remain unoccupied and unobstructed. The 
town itself was to be built upon two hundred and eighty- 
three acres. Two hundred and twenty acres were intended 
to be occupied by houses, and fifteen acres were designated 
as a roadbed that should lead from the town to Queen's 
Creek, which flowed into the York River. Here was reserved 
some fourteen acres for a port, it being provided that twenty- 
three acres should be reserved for a similar purpose on 
Archer's Hope Creek, which finds its way to the James River. 
The selection of the ground upon which the town was to be 
built was left to a jury of twelve men taken from the coun- 
ties of York, New Kent and James City. These all were re- 
quired to be freeholders, and none of them to be related by 
blood or marriage to the owners of the property. Their se- 
lection was reported to the secretary of the colony, and im- 
mediately the trustees, who had already been appointed, were 
authorized to enter upon the land as an absolute estate and 
inheritance to be held in trust for the object defined in the 
statutes. Any lot with a house standing upon it was not in- 
cluded in this transfer, the ownership of which remained with 
the original owner. 

Town lots were to be one-half acre in size, and' the trus- 
tees were instructed to convey these lots to purchasers when 
they had paid fifty per cent, of the original cost to the gov- 
ernment. The lots were sold with the understanding that 
the purchaser should, within a space of two years, build a 




The Old Powder Horn, Williamsburg. 

Built in 1714. 



THE PASSING OF JAMESTOWN. 249 

dwelling twenty feet in width and thirty feet in length. All 
houses were to be built upon a line and within six feet of the 
roadway. 

The new capital had from the outset a most satisfactory 
development. Already there had been erected the building 
for the use of the College of William and Mary. This build- 
ing was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and was admir- 
ably adapted for the purpose for which it was intended. It 
was in this building that the House of Burgesses met until 
1705. In that year was completed the capitol building. The 
word "capitol," with reference to State buildings, was used 
for the first time in connection with the new building. This 
building was located at the opposite end of the Duke of Glou- 
cester Street. It was built in the shape of the letter "H," 
with a portico in front, and it was two stories high. The 
foundations of this old building remain in a fine state of pre- 
servation until this day. 

Nearby the capitol building was erected the famous 
Raleigh Tavern, which was a frame building, a story and a 
half high, with a wing on each side. The room known as 
"The Apollo Room" is the most interesting apartment in 
the old tavern. In this room was a deep fireplace with a 
door on either side, and it was adorned with carved wainscot- 
ing under the windows and over the mantels. 

When Spotswood became Governor, a palace for the use 
of the Governor was built midway between the college and 
the capitol building, upon an estate of about four hundred 
acres. This building was crowned with a cupola, which was 
illuminated on the King's birthday. A school building, 
owned by the college, has been built upon the site occupied 
by this old mansion. 

In the public square of the town, under £he supervision 
of Governor Spotswood and in obedience to an act of the 



2SO COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Assembly, was built the octagonal brick Powder Horn. This 
building was also designed by S'r Christopher Wren. At 
one time it was surrounded by an outer wall, and the entire 
premises were used as a magazine, armory and blacksmith's 
shop. 

In 171 5 the old Bruton Church was erected, and this, too, 
under the supervision of Governor Spotswood. It was cruci- 
form in shape, having a tower at the west end that looked 
towards the college building. It was built of bricks made 
in English molds. The windows were small squares of 
plain white glass, most of which still remain. The church 
was surrounded by a low brick wall with a stone coping. 
The land upon which the church was built was the gift of 
Sir John Page. Flagstone walks led from the street to the 
church, and the aisles of the church were paved with the 
same material. The Governor's pew was a conspicuous fea- 
ture in the church furnishings. It was elevated, square in 
shape and canopied over with rich, red silk. It occupied one 
of the corners made in the transept and nave. There was 
the usual high pulpit, with a sounding-board in the rear. The 
choir was located behind the pulpit, and the chancel was at 
the eastern end. 

Among other prominent buildings was the house used 
for the president of William and Mary College. This house 
was occupied by Lafayette's troops during a part of the 
Revolutionary War, and was accidentally destroyed by fire ; 
but was afterwards rebuilt as a gift from Louis XVI. This 
house was also used for a while as the headquarters of Lord 
Cornwallis. Towards the close of the War of the Revolu- 
tion, Washington had his headquarters at the home of Chan- 
cellor Wythe, on Palace Green. 

There was also built in 1769 the courthouse, which was 
designed likewise by Sir Christopher Wren. Of these build- 
ings there remain the Powder Horn, the Bruton Church and 



THE PASSING OF JAMESTOWN. 251 

the courthouse, all of which are thoroughly well preserved, 
after having passed through the vicissitudes of two great 
wars. Chancellor Wythe's house still remains, as also the 
homes of Peyton and Edmund Randolph, John Blair and 
others of Revolutionary fame, "with their quaint stone steps, 
colored doorways and brass knockers, and with dormer win- 
dows, offices and old rose gardens." 

In the Bruton Church is preserved an old font from 
which Pocahontas is said to have been baptized. This is a 
tradition, and is beyond a doubt incorrect. There is pre- 
served in this church the Jamestown communion service, 
and with this a set known as the "Queen Anne" set, washed 
with gold and exquisitely chased, and also other silver pieces 
of historic interest. 

The new capital soon became the centre of the political 
and social life of Virginia. So gay was it that it is said 
really to have resembled the court of St. James in its social 
ceremonies and functions. The gentlemen of the day were 
arrayed in brilliantly colored velvets and ruffles; the clergy- 
men were clad in sombre black; judges in scarlet robes, and 
the students of William and Mary in academic dress. The 
ladies wore over the booming hoop-skirt gowns of rich bro- 
cade, trailing to the floor, their heads adorned with feathers, 
ribbons and lace, and dressed exceeding high. The mingling 
cf these brilliant colors and the quaint costumes presented 
a most picturesque and fascinating spectacle in the social life 
of the new capital. As early as the middle of the eighteenth 
century theatre-going was introduced, a company from Eng- 
land presenting "The Merchant of Venice" to Williamsburg 
society. It has been said that the Apollp Room, at the 
Raleigh Tavern, probably witnessed more scenes of brilliant 
festivity and political excitement than any other single apart- 
ment in North America. 



252 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

If Jamestown, the old capital, was "the cradle of the 
republic," Williamsburg, the new capital, was the birthplace 
of the American Revolution. It was from the Powder Horn 
magazine that Dunmore stole the powder with which Nor- 
folk was attacked and burned. It was at Williamsburg that 
the demand for liberty was crystallized into the famous reso- 
lution, unanimously and enthusiastically passed, in which were 
instructed the delegates to the Continental Congress to de- 
dare the united colonies free and independent States. It is 
said that when the tidings of the passage of this resolution 
by the Continental Congress reached Williamsburg, the town 
went fairly wild in its patriotic enthusiasm and demonstra- 
tion. The bells were all rung, and all the guns were fired, 
and from the flagstaff of the town was hauled down the 
British flag. 

During the exciting scenes of the Revolution the capital 
of Virginia was removed to Richmond. Williamsburg, how- 
ever, still remains a most charming and aristocratic Vir- 
ginia community, preserving with unaffected pride the simple 
and high traditions of its honorable past," and exemplifying 
still the grace and affluence of old Virginia hospitality. 

/ 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 

With the colony passing from the seventeenth into the 
eighteenth century and entering upon a new career with the 
capital established at Williamsburg, it will be an opportune 
time to inquire into the industrial condition thati had ob- 
tained in the settlement and to make a brief history of the 
various enterprises that had been entered upon. 

The members of the London Company had a very strange 
and exaggerated notion of the climatic conditions of Vir- 
ginia. They refused to believe anything but that there could 
be produced and manufactured in Virginia all the things that 
had hitherto been imported into England from other countries. 
As an indication of the popular thought concerning Vir- 
ginia's versatility and fertility, we make the following quota- 
tion from a sermon by Daniel Price, which is published by 
Mr. Alexander Brown, the original copy of which is in the 
Carter Brown library. The extract that we use is from Mr. 
Neil's "Virginia's Vetusta" : 

"The country is not unlike to equalization (though not 
India in gold, which is not impossible yet,) Tyrus for colors, 
Basan for woods, Persia for oils, Arabia for spices, Spain for 
silks, Narris for ship building, Netherlands for fish, Pomona 
for fruit, and by tillage, Babylon for corn, besides the abund- 
ance of mulberries, minerals, rubies, pearls, gems, grapes, dyes, 
fowl, drugs for physic, herbs for food, ashes for soap, timber 
for building, pastures for feeding, rivers for fishing, and what- 

253 



254 COLONIAL VIRGINIA'. 

ever commodities England wanted; also that virgin country 
may in time prove to us the farm of Britain as Sicily was of 
Rome, or the garden of the world as Thessaly, or the argosy 
of the world as is Germany." 

To further indicate the versatility of the first settlers' 
plans, we give the following from a true and sincere declara- 
tion given out by John Stephany in 1609: "A table of such 
as are required to this plantation : four honest and learned 
ministers, two surgeons, two druggists, ten iron men for 
furnace and hammer, two armorers, two gun founders, six 
blacksmiths, ten sawyers, six carpenters, six ship builders, 
six gardeners, four turners, four brickmakers, two dye makers, 
ten fishermen, six fowlers, four sturgeon dressers and pre- 
servers of the caviare, two salt makers, six coopers, two 
ploughmen, two rope makers, six vine dressers, two press 
makers, two joiners, two soap ash men, two mineral men, two 
planters of sugar cane, two silk dressers, two pearl drillers, 
two bakers, two brewers, two colliers." This memorandum 
would make it appear that the enterprising colonists were 
about to lay vigorous bands upon every form of industry 
known to man. 

Mr. Eggleston, in his "Beginners of the Nation," declares 
in his chapter on the "Procession of Motives" "that the pro- 
longed movement for a colonial establishment, which extended 
over the latter half of the reign of Elizabeth and almost the 
whole reign of James I., was kept alive by delusions." 

From the outset the London Company seems to have ex- 
pected immediate returns and looked for the coming of each 
xeturning vessel with eager expectancy, doubting nothing but 
that it would bring cargoes of wealth, if not of one sort, of 
another. To meet this desire of the company the colonists 
began at once to send back to England such stuffs as they 
might lay immediate hold of. Sassafras was among these 



AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 255 

first commodities exported. At that time it was in great 
use for various domestic and medicinal purposes. Soap ashes 
were made by burning the trees, to which there was no end 
in the immediate neighborhood, and which were scarce in 
the old country. Timber, especially cedar, was among the 
first of these exports, and timber in other forms made up 
parts of these early cargoes. This impetuous haste in creat- 
ing a commerce between the old and new countries was evi- 
dently the desire to make good the statements and repre- 
sentations that had been given forth by the London Company 
in their effort to enlist the people in their colonial enterprise. 

First and last they seem to have undertaken every con- 
ceivable form of industry. They made a most vigorous ef- 
fort to send from Virginia the things that had hitherto been 
procured from the opposite ends of the earth. Not only was 
there an attempt to produce the commodities of the tropical 
regions, but also to furnish those supplies that had been ob- 
tained from the Baltic and Russia and the more northern 
countries of the world. 

Among the first industrial vagaries into which the early 
settlers were drawn was the culture of silk and its manu- 
facture. The knowledge of silk and tfoe demand for it spread 
with marvelous rapidity. When Queen Elizabeth came to the 
throne little was known of silk in England as a wearing ap- 
parel, but in a little while after her reign had begun the use 
of silk came into such general favor as that by the time of 
161 7 it was declared by Lord Carew that "there is a madness 
for silk instead of cloth." 

So early as 1608 James I. had caught the contagion, evi- 
dently from King Henry IV., then reigning in France. He 
procured a private stock of silkworms and began to plant 
for himself mulberry trees and to encourage others to do 
the same. A certain Mr. Stallenge procured a license in 1609, 



256 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

for twenty-one years, to print and sell a book of instructions 
for the planting- and increasing of mulberry trees, the breed- 
ing- of silkworms and the making of silk. Mr. Hakluyt, who 
was in haste always to turn everything to the advantage of 
the Virginia Colony, seized promptly upon the silk craze and 
announced with great assurance that '"'mulberry trees, apt to 
feed silkworms to make silk, were a chief commoditie of 
Virginia." 

In 1608 there was begun in Virginia the raising of silk- 
worms and the effort to manufacture silk. From these first 
experiments some silk was sent to England, which, however, 
must have cost much more than it was sold for in London. 

On account of the confusion and suffering incident to the 
first years of the colony, it was impossible to give attention 
to little else than the protection of themselves against their 
enemies and sickness, and to procure food enough to keep 
body and soul together. 

The first effort of silkworm raising failed in a very few 
years. The settlers were fortunate in being able to excuse 
the failure with the fact that the rats had eaten the eggs of 
the silkworms. In the meantime the craze for silk was rap- 
idly increasing. The supply was so limited and the demand 
so great that it was bringing exorbitant prices in the London 
market. In the year 1620 it was being sold as raw silk for 
twenty-eight shillings per pound. It was thought that if such 
prices might be secured the culture of silk would prove an 
exceedingly profitable enterprise. So in 1620 plans were 
again projected for the growth and manufacture of silk in Vir- 
ginia. The Earl of Southampton undertook to re-establish 
the enterprise. Every effort was made to secure the best 
quality of silkworm and the most competent and skilled 
laborers to direct the enterprise, and to circulate among the 
people as widely as possible the most expert information con- 



AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 257 

cerning the care of the silkworm and the growth of the mul- 
berry tree, upon which the worm was to feed. A Mr. Bonel, 
at the suggestion of the company, made a special book on the 
subject of silk culture and the manufacture of silk, which was 
distributed free of cost to the people. Supplies of worms 
were secured from Italy, Spain and France, and from the royal 
silk establishment expert workmen were brought over to have 
general charge of the culture of silk in the colony. The 
General Assembly lent itself to the enterprise in legislation 
that sought to encourage, in every possible way, the industry. 
The very first year of its existence a law was passed en- 
couraging the planting of mulberry trees. In order to create 
a general interest in the culture of silk, the London Company, 
in 1621, issued an order that only members of the Council 
and heads of hundreds should be permitted to wear garments 
made of silk, except as the silk was made and cultivated by 
themselves. 

As usual in those days, the most extravagant notions con- 
cerning the culture of silk and the profits therefrom were cur- 
rent among the people. It was reported that a certain woman 
had discovered that the silkworm, if let alone, would care 
for itself, "to the instant enrichment of all the planters." It 
was also conceived and recommended that the Indians would 
soon follow the example of the settlers and turn to the rais- 
ing of silk. It was also conceived that the American cater- 
pillar was really the natural silkworm, and by a little manip- 
ulation and encouragement its cocoon would become suffi- 
ciently refined to produce the finest quality of silk. How- 
ever, in 1666 the craze for silk passed away, and the Assem- 
bly repealed all the laws that had been made with reference 
to the culture of silk. For many years groups of growing 
mulberry trees remained as the monuments of the folly of 
the first settlers in an honest and determined effort to create 
an impossible commerce in silk. 



258 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Very early in the history of the colony the settlers be- 
came interested in the manufacture of glass. It was doubt- 
less the value that Indians set upon glass beads that sug- 
gested the desirability of their manufacture in the colony. 
It seemed good to be able to make in their own mints that 
which for many purposes could be made tjo serve as a me- 
dium of exchange between them and the Indians. Even 
while Smith was in the colony he wrote to the treasurer of 
the company and spoke of the desirability of the manufac- 
ture of glass, and asked that glass workers be sent over 
from Germany or Poland. Evidently the first settlers were 
under the impression that there was nearby an abundant 
supply of sand out of which the glass could be made, and 
they were much impressed with the large supply of timber 
for fuel, of which there was a growing scarcity in England. 

When Newport came over in the fall of 1608 he brought 
with him a number of Dutch and Poles whose business it 
should be to manufacture glass. With little delay a glass 
house was erected about a mile from Jamestown. When 
Newport returned to England, after he had delivered the 
second supply, he carried some samples of manufactured 
glass. The manufacture of glass at this time very likely 
ceased during the starvation period, and no effort was made 
to revive it until 1621. In that year the company felt that 
it was important that the work should be taken up again, 
and entered into contract witih Captain William Norton, 
who was going to the colony with his family. He was to 
carry to Virginia laborers skilled in glass making, and was 
allowed also two servants. He was given the exclusive right 
to manufacture glass for a term of seven years. His entire 
time was to be given to the superintending and management 
of the works. It was also stipulated that he was to retain no 
beads in his possession, as these could be used only in trade 



AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 259 

with the Indians, and the company reserved to itself all rights 
to barter with the Indians. It was soon found out that the 
company could not keep its part of the contract with Captain 
Norton, and so the organization of a separate company was 
resorted to, and between this company and Captain Norton 
very much the same contract was entered into. Norton came 
to the colony and actually built the glass house. He, how- 
ever, soon died, and by direction of the company the man- 
agement of the glass works was left to Sir Edwin Sandys. 
The failure of the works is attributed to two things : the men 
brought over to work were very hard to manage and were 
disposed to spend their time among the Indians, from whom 
they got an easier and a more abundant living". Their con- 
duct must have been exceedingly exasperating, as the mild 
Sandys speaks of them in this fashion : "That a more damned 
crew Hell never vomited." This would be considered rather 
an unbecoming speech by any pious captain of industry in 
these latter days. The other fact that contributed to the 
failure of the glass works is that there appeared to be no- 
where accessible any sand suitable for the manufacture of 
glass. Several sand banks along the river were tried, after 
which a cargo of sand was procured from Cape Henry, but 
it was found that the glass manufactured from it was of a very 
inferior sort. So, in sheer desperation, the London Company 
was informed that sand should be brought to America and 
manufactured into glass. This is a fair example of the 
thoughtless and hasty way in which the settlers, in their 
anxiety to bring things to pass, undertook to do impossible 
things. Doubtless if they had been let alone they would have 
soon adapted themselves to their new surroundings, and would 
at least have solved the problem of their own support without 
the waste of time and energy in these wild enterprises. 

Allusion has been made to the iron furnaces at Falling 



26o COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Creek that were destroyed by the Indians in the massacre 
of 1622. The notion that iron could be mined and manufac- 
tured somewhere contiguous to the settlements took hold upon 
the minds of the people early in the history of the colony. 
Iron was discovered by the Raleigh expeditions, and was re- 
ported as being in large quantities and of fine quality. Har- 
riot, the friend of Raleigh and the historian of his expeditions, 
speaking of the discovery of iron near Roanoke Island, said : 

"We found near the water side the ground to be rocky 
and which was found to hold iron richly. I know nothing to 
the contrary but that it may be allowed for a good mercantile 
commodity considering the small charges for the labor and 
the feeding of men, the infinite store of wood, the waste of 
wood and the dearness thereof in England and the necessity 
of ballasting of ships." 

On account of these considerations Mr. Harriot evidently 
thought that such iron might be mined to good advantage and 
great profit. 

When Newport returned in 1608 to England, he carried 
some iron ore with his cargo. The ore was smelted and sev- 
enteen tons of it were sold at £4 per ton to the East India 
Company. This was doubtless the first iron ever manu- 
factured from American ore. There is an utter absence of 
proof that the aborigines knew anything at all of the manu- 
facturing of iron. Their implements and vessels were inva- 
riably made of stone, and not of iron. There was, to a small 
extent, a knowledge of the use of copper, but there is no evi- 
dence that they appreciated the value of iron or had learned 
to use it. 

In 1610 Sir Thomas Gates told the Council in London 
that there were divers metals, especially iron ore, in Virginia 
lying upon the surface of the ground, some of which had been 
sent home and found to yield as good iron as any in England. 



AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 261 

In 1617 the Virginia Company sent over iron workers, with 
instructions to set up three iron works at some desirable 
points in the colony. The enterprise was undertaken in that 
same year and was located at Falling- Creek, a tributary of 
the James River, seven miles below Richmond. 

Mr. Beverly, in his "History of Virginia," alludes to these 
works in the following way : 

"The works were set up where they made proof of good 
iron ore and brought the whole work so near perfection that 
they sent word to the company in London that they did not 
doubt but to finish the work and have plentiful provision of 
iron for them by the next Easter in the spring of 1621." Un- 
fortunately the three men who had been sent Over by the 
London Company, and who had been intrusted with the con- 
struction of the works and the management of them, died, and 
as there were no other men competent to take their places, 
the works were in disuse. 

In July, 1621, the company sent over Mr. John Berkeley to 
take charge of the works. Mr. Berkeley was accompanied 
by his son and by twenty laborers, skilled and experienced in 
iron work. They had not been long in the country before 
the following communication was received from the London 
Company, directed to the Council in Virginia: 

"We pray your assistance in the perfecting of these two 
works. The profit will redound to the whole colony, and 
therefore it is necessary that you extend your authority to the 
utmost limits to enforce such as 'shall refuse the help to a 
business so much to the general good." 

On the 5th of December, 1621, there was another com- 
munication, "urging all possible diligence and industrious ef- 
fort to further and accomplish those great and many designs 
of salt, sawing mills and iron." In 1622 there was this fur- 
ther communication : "The good entrance which we have un- 



262 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

derstood you have made in the iron works and in other stable 
commodities, let us have at least by the next return some 
good quantity of iron and wine." 

But the next tidings that go to the London Company are 
the tidings of the terrible massacre and the destruction of the 
property at Falling Creek, and of the death at the hands of 
the Indians of every man associated with the works. These 
works were never rebuilt. 

In 1724, on the Horse Shoe Peninsula, on the Rapidan, 
Governor Spotswood built a town, calling it Germanna. 
Here he built his own home, surrounding it with houses for 
v/orkmen, with whom he expected to operate furnaces for the 
making of iron. Finding in this neighborhood an abundance 
of iron ore, he formed a partnership with Mr. Robert Cary 
for the mining of ore and the manufacture of iron. 

Colonel Byrd has in his letters a most charming account 
of his visit to these mines and to the home of Governor Spots- 
wood. It was in an interview on this visit that Governor 
Spotswood was styled by Colonel Byrd as "the Tubal Cain 
of Virginia. As the first worker in iron upon anything like 
a large scale, he is justly entitled to this name. In this inter- 
view Governor Spotswood expressed the hope that his ad- 
venture in mining and manufacturing of iron would be con- 
sidered by the Virginia people a good example to follow, say- 
ing that "the four furnaces now at work in Virginia circulate 
a great deal of money for provisions and all other necessities. 
They took off a great number of hands from planting tobacco 
and provided a work that produced large sums of money in 
England to the persons concerned whereby the country is so 
much the richer; that they are providing a great advantage 
to Great Britain because it lessens the quantity of iron ore 
imported from Spain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Mus- 
covy, which used to be no less than twenty thousand tons a 
year, though at the same time no sow iron was imported." 



AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 263 

It was soon discovered that the soil of Virginia would 
produce a good quality of flax. It seemed to the settlers 
also that in the water flag, a prolific plant in that section, 
they had found a fibre which would prove as satisfactory as 
the fibre of flax. This plant, when boiled, yielded a fibre that, 
for strength and length, seemed quite as good as the fibre 
of the flax plant. Some of this fibre was shipped to England, 
and is said to have proved to be of excellent quality. It 
seemed not unlikely that the new colony would be able to fur- 
nish flax and linen sufficient to meet the demands of the 
mother country. In spite, however, of the certainty that flax 
could be made a profitable crop, it was cultivated only after 
a desultory fashion. The General Assembly, in 1646, became 
interested in the growth of flax and the manufacture of linen, 
and authorized the construction of two houses in Jamestown, 
which were to be used for the manufacturing of linen. Two 
children were to be secured from each county and brought to 
this home, where they were to be instructed in the art of 
manufacturing linen. Every possible precaution was taken 
that the children procured under this enactment should be 
carefully and adequately provided for in all matters of food, 
apparel and shelter. It remained, however, for Captain Mat- 
thews, who lived on the lower James, to furnish an example 
of what might be done in the growth of flax and the manu- 
facture of linen. He had a number of servants and slaves 
who were spinners of flax. In 1687 Colonel Fitzhugh con- 
gratulated him in a letter upon the success he had achieved 
in this enterprise. He also commends him as an example to 
the other planters of the colony. 

When Lord Culpeper was made Governor in 1682, he un- 
dertook in a more elaborate way than had ever been done, to 
encourage the manufacture of linen and to regulate many mat- 
ters incident thereto- It was sought by legislation to compel 



264 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

every tithable to produce at least two pounds of flax and one 
pound of hemp, or two pounds of hemp and one pound of 
flax. As a further inducement it was provided that there 
should be paid out of the public levy two pounds of tobacco 
for every pound of flax or hemp grown, and six pounds of to- 
bacco for every ell of linen cloth. There were to be certifi- 
cates accompanying all claims before this reward could be re- 
ceived. This statute did not remain in operation more than 
three years, and was repealed in 1685. The dissatisfaction 
with the enactment seems to have grown out of the heavy 
burden it imposed in the matter of the tobacco rewards. It was 
argued further that the people had made sufficient progress 
in the cultivation of hemp and manufacture of linen, and did 
not need the encouragement of the rewards. 

The English government, however, never entertained the 
idea of the manufacture of either linen or woolen cloths in 
the colony with any degree of favor. The Englishmen were 
willing, to be sure, that Virginia should produce raw mate- 
rials, but claimed for themselves the right and privilege of 
manufacture. However, the wishes of the English people 
did not greatly concern the colonists. They were rapidly 
learning that in many things they must look out for them- 
selves, and that if it should prove profitable for them to man- 
ufacture into finished products their own raw materials, it 
would not be wise for them to hesitate to do so. 

The act that was repealed in 1685 was re-enacted in 1693 
with some modifications. This time the act provided that 
instead of the tobacco used for rewards being taken from the 
general levy, it was to be furnished by each county to its own 
growers. Under this new act three pounds of tobacco were 
to be given for every ell of manufactured linen. The linen 
was to be not less than three-quarters of a yard wide, nor 
less than fifteen yards in length. Three samples were re^ 



AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 265 

quired from each person claiming- the reward. A special re- 
ward was offered of eight hundred pounds of tobacco for the 
piece of the best quality of linen ; six hundred pounds for the 
second grade, and for the third grade four hundred pounds of 
tobacco were offered. This act remained in force until 1699. 

In spite of all this, however, the colony never gave itself 
to any very general cultivation of flax. In 1698, in answer 
to a communication from the Governor, asking to what extent 
the linen had been manufactured in the county of Middlesex, 
it was answered that the quantity had amounted annually to 
about fifty yards. This may be fairly taken as an indication 
of the success that attended the effort to encourage the man- 
ufacture of linen. It ought to be understood, however, that 
in many instances each plantation was manufacturing enough 
linen for its own use. The Virginians were not slow to dis- 
cover that it was easier and more profitable to sell tobacco 
and buy the linen than it was to manufacture linen. 

In the manufacture of woolen goods the colonists met 
with even more stubborn resistance from the English manu- 
facturers. It is somewhat amusing to note how the new 
country was exploited for nearly everything else imaginable, 
yet seriously deprecated in the matter of sheep husbandry 
and woolen industry. It was religiously asserted that the 
fact that God had denied sheep to Virginia was an indication 
that the settlers ought not to fly in the face of Providence 
and undertake that which had already been provided for in 
the old country. There was, however, an evident determina- 
tion among the colonists to provide woolen goods at least for 
their own use. So determined were they in this purpose that 
in 1659 an act was passed prohibiting the exportation of wool. 
It was felt that England was not providing clothing sufficient 
for the needs of the colony, and in 1666 the General Assembly 
determined to take some active steps in the encouragement 



266 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

of woolen goods. Captain Matthews, Governor Berkeley and 
others had already shown that it was possible and profitable 
for the planters to furnish their own households and planta- 
tions with woolen goods. The court of each county was or- 
dered by the General Assembly to establish a loom and to em- 
ploy a weaver to work it in every county court town. It was 
later provided that the different counties should build houses 
in which the children of poor parents should be assembled, 
and were to be taught to spin and weave as well as to learn 
other trades. 

Under the exceeding pressure brought to bear from the old 
country, in 1671 the statute prohibiting the exportation of 
wool was repealed. It was, however, re-enacted again in 1682. 
The Virginians declared that the manufacture of woolen goods 
was absolutely necessary for the use of the colony, and be- 
sides advantageous, in that it gave occupation to a large num- 
ber of people. 

The penalty for exporting wool or woolen goods was fixed 
at forty pounds of tobacco for every pound of these commodi- 
ties shipped out of the country. A severe penalty was fixed 
against the ship that would carry in its cargo these woolen 
goods, the masters and seamen being deprived of their own 
goods and chattels and subject to a term of imprisonment. 

It was also sought by the act of 1682 to encourage the 
manufacture of woolen goods in very much the same way as 
it had been sought to encourage the manufacture of linen. 
Six pounds of tobacco were offered to every person who would 
bring into the court of the county in which he resided a yard 
of woolen cloth three-quarters of a yard wide. These acts 
seem to have been measurably successful, and the attention 
of the planters in general was directed to the policy of at 
least manufacturing for their own requirements woolen goods. 
The opposition from England continued ? and every sort of ex- 



AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 267 

pedient was resorted to in order that the manufacture of 
woolen goods might be made burdensome and unprofitable. 
After all, however, the acts of Parliament did not seriously 
affect the Virginians, because they really had no purpose to 
enter into the manufacture of woolen goods beyond the sup- 
plying of their own needs; and while the colonists continued 
to manufacture woolen stuffs, it was usually of the coarser 
quality, mainly for the use of their servants and slaves* All 
finer woolen stuffs were always imported from England. 

The Virginians of the seventeenth and the eighteenth cen- 
turies did not leave behind them their taste and appetite for 
wines and liquors, and it was very early suggested to them 
that they might manufacture their own wines instead of im- 
porting them at great cost from England. Indeed, it was even 
imagined that wine might be produced not only for home con- 
sumption, b\it for exportation as well. In a letter from the 
Governor and Council in Virginia to the company, in 1610, it 
was remarked that "in every boscage and common hedge, and 
not far from our Palisade gates were thousands of goodly 
vines running along the ground and climbing to every tree, 
which yielded plentiful grapes in their kind. Let me appeal, 
then, to knowledge if these natural vines were planted, 
dressed and ordered by skilful vinearones, whether we might 
not make a perfect grape and plentiful vintage in short time." 

At two different times there was an exportation in casks 
of wine made in Virginia to England. In one instance it was 
claimed that the wine had been damaged in shipment and did 
not fairly represent the products of Virginia's vintage. In 
the other instance the wine never found any very great favor 
among Englishmen who were used to the finer qualities of 
wine. Except for individual and domestic use the cultivation 
of the grape for wine never assumed any very large or hope- 
ful proportions. 



268 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

It was said that Colonel Beverley planted a vineyard in 
which he took great pride, and told many stories of his ex- 
pectations as to the possibilities of grape culture in the colony. 
It is said that on one occasion his wines were submitted to a 
gentleman from France, who, doubtless because he was a 
Frenchman, rendered a very neutral sort of a verdict with 
reference to the quality of the colonel's wines. 

The Sainsbury manuscripts have a record of a solemn ap- 
plication made by a Mr. Russell to the London Company, 
offering to sell a recipe for making wine out of sassafras. 
He explained this discovery of his as a wine that had all the 
exhilarating properties of grape wine, without its inebriating 
quality. It turned out afterwards that he had only discovered 
the concoction of the later old Virginia mammies, a tea brewed 
from the roots of the sassafras, and considered a cure for ail 
the ills incident to the spring time. Mr. Russell wanted the 
modest sum of £1,000 for his recipe, with a small royalty from 
its future manufacture. 

Another benevolent gentleman announced with very 
amusing* naivete that there was a drink to be made from 
Indian corn that greatly surpassed the products of the 
breweries in England. One wonders if aforetime this gen- 
tleman had stumbled into the process of making what is 
known in these latter days as the moonshine article of corn 
whiskey. If he did, there are numerous successors to him 
who would doubtless be willing to testify that they had rather 
have it than any liquors brewed in old England. 

In addition to the things that have been suggested, there 
was an attempt, not altogether unsuccessful, in the manufac- 
ture of leather, and for a number of years great interest was 
taken in the manufacture of hides and even of the finer quality 
of leather. This was done, however, mainly for home con- 
sumption, and there are evidences that the rougher quaiity 



AN INFANT NATION'S INDUSTRIES. 269 

of shoes were manufactured in Virginia, and mainly by the 
individual planters on their own plantations. The General 
Assembly, as in the case of other attempts in manufacturing, 
became greatly interested in the manufacture of leather, and 
passed various regulations governing all phases of the indus- 
try. Laws were passed prohibiting the exportation of hides 
and skins, both tanned and untanned. In the act for ports, 
passed in 1691, but really never put into operation, an export 
duty was laid on all leather and furs that were sent from the 
colony. This was really the repeal of the act forbidding the 
exportation of leather and furs. In 1693 it was sought by 
these export taxes on leather and furs to increase the endow- 
ment of William and Mary College. A tax of threepence 
per pound was put on every raw hide, sixpence on tanned 
hides, and one penny and three farthings on dressed buckskin, 
and one penny on every undressed buckskin. 

In conclusion, it can be said that while many of these at- 
tempts at manufacture seemed to be impossible and ludicrous, 
they were, after all, prophetic of the possibilities of this great 
continent and of the later achievements of our great American 
industries. Under primitive conditions and by the use of 
crude methods, these early settlers were attempting in minia- 
ture, things that have been realized in very large ways since 
their day. They made scarcely a single effort in any direc- 
tion but that in these later days has been made marvelously 
successful. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
POLITICS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

It has already been related how the members of the Lon- 
don Company in England were divided into political factions. 
One faction favored a popular government ; the other faction 
wa,s in strong sympathy with the Kings in their contention for 
the divine right. For a long while the latter faction seems to 
have had most influence in the control of the affairs of the 
company, but in 1619 the Southampton faction came into con- 
trol and a liberal policy toward Virginia was inaugurated and 
steadfastly pursued. A part of that policy was the establish- 
ment of the House of Burgesses in Virginia. 

On the repeal of the charter of the London Company Vir- 
ginia became a royal province, but the King allowed the Gen- 
eral Assembly to remain as a fixed institution, and for this 
reason the interests of the colony were usually well guarded. 
Frequently, however, the Governors undertook to override the 
actions of the Assembly, and the King reserved to himself, and, 
after 1684, to the commissioners of the plantations in England, 
the right to disapprove of laws passed by the General As- 
sembly. There were just enough men in Virginia who had 
secured their lands by grants directly from the King to form 
a party, and who sympathized with the Kings, and who gen- 
eially supported the Governors in many of their high-handed 
actions. Generally speaking, therefore, the political contest 
in Virginia from 1624 to 1776 was one in which the people 
were arraigned against the Governors of the royal party, 

270 



POLITICS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 271 

In noting the development of the liberties of Virginia, one 
observes that the suffrage basis for the first House of Bur- 
gesses was a liberal one, for this assembly was elected by the 
citizens. For fifty-one years this basis continued to exist, but 
under the influence of Berkeley, in 1670, the right of suffrage 
was dislodged from this broad basis, and only freeholders were 
permitted to exercise its prerogative. This law limiting the 
suffrage of the people to the freeholders was repealed by the 
Bacon Assembly, but the royal Governors who followed did 
not hesitate to take up the fight and to contend that the right 
of suffrage should not be extended to all freemen, but should 
be limited to freeholders. Finally, in 1705, suffrage by legis- 
lation was restricted to freeholders. No definite statement, 
however, was made as to how much land a freeholder should 
own. Governor Spotswood afterward complained very bit- 
terly to the commissioners of plantations in England that any 
man who owned as much as a half acre of land could vote in 
Virginia, and that frequently the elections were controlled by 
a worthless set who had little real interest in the affairs of the 
colony. 

The King had instructed Berkeley fifty years before to 
have suffrage restricted, and now the commissioners of plan- 
tations and the King brought further influence to bear and 
sought to restrict even more narrowly the right of suffrage. 
Finally, after the expiration of forty years more, it was de- 
cided that no man should vote unless he owned fifty acres of 
land with a house on it, or a house and lot in town, or one 
hundred acres of unimproved land. Thus was inaugurated the 
freehold system of suffrage, which continued in force in Vir- 
ginia until 1830. This was eminently satisfactory to the aris- 
tocratic class, and during the colonial days especially we find 
that the large planters felt that because of their position and 
influence the control of all the affairs of the colony should be 
held in their own hands. 



272 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Another matter of interest with reference to the politics of 
colonial Virginia was the basis of representation in the House 
of Burgesses. In the early days, following the English custom 
of two knights for a shire, it was decreed that each plantation 
should have two representatives. When the plantation system 
was abolished and the counties were formed in 1634, the same 
principle was applied, and each county was allowed two mem- 
bers in the House of Burgesses. This basis of representation 
continued as the law until 1830. It was really a travesty on 
representative government, for by the time of the Revolution 
it often happened that one large county had a population from 
ten to twenty times as great as a smaller county, and by 1830 
the white population was from thirty to forty times as great 
in some of the larger counties a,s that of the smaller counties. 
Toward the middle and close of the eighteenth century this 
f&ct created considerable dissatisfaction in the larger counties. 
But more important matters engaged the mind of the people 
of politics until after the Revolution had been accomplished. 

A matter of common discussion during the whole colonial 
period was the question of taxation. All tobacco exported 
from the colony was taxed twopence per pound, and all lands 
under the system of land tenure were supposed to be held for 
the crown, and rents were raised on these lands for the bene- \ 
fit of the King and his government. In addition to this the 
counties were divided into parishes, and in each parish every 
person over sixteen years of age, black or white, was regarded 
as a tithable, and had to pay a poll tax to the vestry of the 
parish for the support of the church. 

The navigation laws, which required goods to be shipped 
in any vessel to English ports, constituted, in a sense, a sys- 
tem of indirect taxation which was always oppressive and ex- 
ceedingly obnoxious to the people. Every one of these laws 
were resisted by the people in one form or another. The fron- 



POLITICS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 273 

tier county objected to the quit rents; the planter objected to 
the tax on tobacco and the navigation laws; and those who 
were not adherents of the established church were stubbornly 
opposed to the system of tithes. Just as to-day the question 
of taxation is the most serious problem with which our legis- 
lators have to deal, ,so it was in colonial days. 

Another matter of interest was the constant discussion 
created by the large land grants made by the King. The King 
granted continuously large grants of land to his favorites, and 
the last favorite often received a grant covering the land al- 
ready occupied or previously granted to some one else. There 
was a constant confusion and discussion as to whether this 
was just and right, and appeals were frequently made to the 
commissioners of plantations that this system should be abro- 
gated. 

In the early years of the colony, that is, before 1632, the 
usual grant was from fifty to one hundred acres, and the 
largest grant reported in 1632 was three hundred and fifty 
acres. But before the century was over it was not an uncom- 
mon thing for the King to hand out to one of his favorites 
twenty thousand acres at a time, and in the eighteenth cen- 
tury these munificent grants ran up to hundreds of thousands 
of acres. In this way the King created a sort of land monop- 
oly. Of very special note was the grant to Lord Fairfax of a 
large territory of land out of which more than ten counties 
were carved. 

Great discontent was created by the system in vogue for 
the local government in the county. There was a county 
court, composed of a number of justices of the peace, presided 
over by the chief magistrate. All of these individuals were 
appointed by the royal Governor, and they constituted a kind 
of close corporation, usually holding office indefinitely. The 
only real county official was the high sheriff, whose duty it 



274 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

was to see that the laws were inforced, collect all taxes, and 
act as treasurer of the county. As a rule, the chief magistrate 
was appointed sheriff whenever a vacancy occurred. The 
county government was entirely in the hands of the Gov- 
ernor, and while representatives of the people in the Assembly 
might meet and discuss measures and pass laws, the county 
officials, who were in sympathy with the Governor, being his 
appointees, would often arrogantly ignore the plain acts of the 
Assembly. Hence it was very difficult, in any case in which 
the government was involved, to secure justice. 

If there ever existed in Virginia political rings, it was in 
the early days of the colonial period. Even in matters of jus- 
tice in the higher courts, the Governor occupied the same 
centre of influence and power. The Supreme Court of the 
colony was made up of all the members of the Council, who 
were appointed by the King in England. These Councilors 
were usually appointed on the recommendation of the Gov- 
ernor, since he was the representative of the King in Virginia, 
and was supposed to be acquainted with the best men who 
should constitute the Council of the State. 

All questions of appeal made to the Council were naturally 
settled in favor of the King, or according to the wish of the 
Governor. 

The whole matter of colonial government reduced itself 
to a condition in which practically all the affairs of the govern- 
ment were either directly or indirectly in the hands of the 
Governor, except that all laws which passed through the Gen- 
eral Assembly had aliso to be passed upon by the House of 
Burgesses, who were the only officials elected by popular vote. 
But even here the Governor had great influence, not only be- 
cause of his superior position, but because of the fact that it 
depended upon him as to what time the writs of election 
should be issued for a House of Burgesses. He had a right 



POLITICS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 275 

to dissolve the House of Burgesses at will. In case of a dis- 
solution he could order a new election when he thought best. 
Though the Governors had so much power their official life 
was by no means easy, for the people of Virginia were con- 
stantly complaining and were making constant appeals to the 
commissioners of plantations. These appeals were an in- 
cessant source of annoyance to the Governors. 

Whenever the people had the privilege of voting for Bur- 
gesses, they showed their will in many ways not at all pleas- 
ing to the Governor. Sometimes they openly violated the 
laws in force governing elections by preventing a sheriff who 
was friendly to the Governor from making what they thought 
would be improper returns, or by winning the sheriff over 
to their way of thinking, thus securing padded returns in 
their favor. On the other hand, it is not to be forgotten that 
the .sheriff often made wrong returns in order that his friends 
or the Governor's friends might stay in the Assembly. It is 
very interesting indeed to look into these colonial elections 
and to discover the method which prevailed then, and to com- 
pare them with the elections as they are held to-day. 

As to election methods in colonial days we are not able to 
determine how the people voted in 1619. There was at that 
time no sheriff, but it was reported that the Burgesses were 
elected by the freemen, who met on the plantations and de- 
cided that certain men were to become their Burgesses. It is 
probable that the first elections were conducted by counting 
heads. 

On the establishment of counties, the elections were put 
into the hands of the sheriff, who had to give notice of the 
elections to be held to all the citizens of their respective coun- 
ties. So when the sheriff received a writ from the Governor 
authorizing an election, he had to send out riders to inform 
the people of the time when elections were to be held at the 



276 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

courthouse. In 1655 a law was passed requiring the sheriff 
and his deputies to give notice within ten days after the re- 
ceipt of the writ from the Governor. Notice was to be given 
from house to house to all persons interested in the election. 
This was a great burden upon the sheriff, especially in view 
of the fact that the counties were very large, many smaller 
counties having since been made from them. As a matter 
of fact the sheriff seldom performed his duty fully. It was 
the sheriff's duty, likewise, to hold the election and make the 
returns, showing what persons had been elected, said returns 
to be made to the office of the secretary of the colony before 
the meeting of the Assembly. If in any way the sheriff failed 
to do his duty, he was to be fined one thousand pounds of 
tobacco. In making these returns the sheriffs were often in- 
clined to proceed illegally. 

The first act of illegal proceedings in connection with an 
election is to be found in Hening's "Statutes," in the year 
1661, at which time one Walter Bacon, high sheriff of New 
Kent, was fined for "undue proceedings" in the election in his 
county. In 1662 the method of notifying the people was 
changed, and the sheriff was requested, on receiving a writ, to 
give a copy of the same to every minister and reader in every 
parish in his county. The ministers or readers were requested 
by law to announce for two successive Sundays preceding the 
election the time of holding the election. Thus the church 
was used as a means by which to inform voters of the right 
they had to select members for the House of Burgesses. 

It is interesting to note also that when a Governor issued 
a writ for elections, the law required that the secretary of the 
colony should provide for prompt delivery, and that the same 
should be sent out at least forty days before the time for the 
Assembly to meet. The method of voting was viva voce. 
This method was frequently ignored by electors who lived at 



POLITICS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 27; 

a great distance from the courthouse, and often they would 
subscribe their names on a piece of paper, indicating for whom 
they voted, and send the same to the courthouse by some elec- 
tor who attended the election. One can imagine an elector 
standing for hours in a path leading through the woods wait- 
ing to catch a voter who would carry his vote to the court- 
house. The sheriff accepted this ballot, so to speak, and en- 
tered it on the poll books. By an act of 1646 this practice 
was positively forbidden, and all voters were required to go 
to the courthouse on election day and vote viva voce. Many 
years after a law was passed to fine every voter who did not 
appear and exercise the right of suffrage. 

No special provisions were made for conducting these 
elections until the year 1699. It was then provided that when 
all the voters assembled, if it could not be determined upon 
view of the freeholders who was elected, that the sheriff 
should proceed to select as many clerks as he thought best. 
These clerks were to »set down in writing the names of each 
freeholder and the person for whom he should vote. If the 
candidates, or any one of them, should require it, the free- 
holder had to swear that he was a qualified voter under the 
law. When the vote had been completed, the returns were 
made to the secretary of the colony. The sheriff was also 
required to give a copy to each candidate if he was so re- 
quested to do. If the sheriff refused to take the polls accord- 
ing to law, or to give copies to the candidate^, or to give 
legal notice, or if he made false returns, or if he made no re- 
turns, or if he made the returns in a form not prescribed by 
law, for each and every offense he was to be fined £40. 
This law seemed satisfactory so far as the election^ were con- 
cerned, but there was so much delay about the delivery of 
the writs and the proper notice of elections that the Assem- 
bly, in 1705, passed a law to remedy this trouble. First, the 



278 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

writ was to be signed by the Governor and delivered by him 
tc the ^secretary of the colony at least forty days before the 
time appointed for the meeting of the Assembly. Second, 
the secretary had to deliver the writs within ten days after 
their receipt to the sheriff. Third, the sheriff had to send 
copies of the writs within three days to the ministers and 
readers of the parishes in his county, for them to read in their 
churches for two successive Sundays. Fourth, the method 
of taking the poll was the same as provided for in the act of 
1699. This remained the form of conducting elections until 
the adoption of the Constitution in 1776. Even after the 
Commonwealth had been established the viva voce method 
continued until 1867. But with the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion in 1776, and the disestablishment of the church, the min- 
isters and readers in the parishes were not required to promul- 
gate the time of the elections. As a definite time for holding 
elections in each county had been fixed by law, this method 
for giving notice was not necessary. 

On the day of the election throughout colonial days, as far 
as we are able to judge, the candidates or their agents w r ere 
always present at the courthouse. They usually sat on the 
hustings in the court-room, where they could hear how each 
voter polled. The candidate voted for, on hearing his name 
called, was accustomed to rise and bow his thanks to the voter 
who had honored him. At the opening of the polls each can- 
didate usually made a speech, stating what measures he would 
advocate. If he had been a member of the previous Assembly, 
he would explain the course that he had pursued in that body. 
If any voter was to be challenged, the candidate or his agent 
■'would prevent the sheriff from having his name recorded 
at the time he wajs casting his vote. This viva voce method 
seems to have been entirely satisfactory in colonial days, and 
we discover very little desire for the ballot system. We are 



POLITICS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 279 

told that the Norfolk borough used the ballot system to elect 
members to the Convention in 1775, and as far as the writer 
lias been able to discover, it is the first instance recorded of 
anything of the kind in Virginia. 

As to the place of elections it is recalled that the first elec- 
tions were held on plantations, but in 1645 it was declared 
that all elections should be held at the courthouse in the re- 
spective counties, unless by act of the Assembly other places 
were designated. In towns the privilege was given to hold 
elections under the direction of the Mayor. It is interesting 
to observe that the inhabitants of Norfolk borough not only 
voted for Burgesses from the borough, but also for Burgesses 
from Norfolk county. This system of holding elections at the 
courthouses continued in force until 1830, though by special 
acts of the Legislature, between 1776 and 1830, about seventy- 
five separate places for election other than the courthouse 
had been established. The elections held in special voting 
places were put into the hands of five commissioners ap- 
pointed by the county court. The voter was allowed to vote 
in any place, provided he voted only once in any election in 
any one county ; but he could vote in as many counties as he 
owned property. 

As to the time of elections, before 1775 it was absolutely 
indefinite. Whenever the Governor thought proper to dis- 
solve an Assembly and to issue a writ for an election, he 
could do so, and the sheriff announced the time in his own 
county which he would set for an election. For this reason 
the writs had to be read in the churches. It is probable that 
the elections were held in Virginia at intervals of from three 
to seven years, if one can judge from the list of Burgesses 
given in Hening's "Statutes" and in the "Virginia Magazine 
cf History." In 1775, however, the Virginia Convention de- 
clared that elections should be held annually at the court- 



280 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

houses of the respective counties. In the first Virginia Con- 
stitution this same principle was incorporated. Since the 
court days of each county were taken as election days, the 
system was very different from that in vogue at the present 
time, when the elections are held on the same day throughout 
the State. In other words, the Virginia custom was that 
which prevailed in England, where each shire holds its own 
election at a time which is fixed upon by the sheriff as the most 
suitable. 

The time at which the polls were to be open was twelve 
o'clock in the day, after the freeholders had assembled and 
discussed among themselves the general political situation and 
the policies that should be carried out in the Assembly. As 
soon as all the freeholders present had voted, the sheriff would 
announce the fact at the door of the courthouse that the polls 
would be closed, after which he would wait for a short while, 
and if no other voter presented himself, the list was then 
made up and the report sent off. This proved unsatisfactory 
and was changed so that the polls had to be kept open until 
sundown, and if more voters appeared than could be listed 
by sunset, then the election was to continue on the following 
day. In case of bad weather the polls were to be kept open 
for three days, so that voters from different parts of the 
county might be able to appear and have an opportunity to 
cast their vote. The modern critics of our present method of 
holding elections often think that our political methods are 
more corrupt to-day than they were in colonial days, but if 
the old records are to be relied upon, men made every effort 
to be elected by short cuts and otherwise at that time just as 
they do to-day. 

The first mention of anything bordering on corruption is 
the statement that a gentleman offered himyself as a candidate 
for a seat in the House of Burgesses on the agreement that 



POLITICS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 281 

if he were elected he would not ask from the county the usual 
stipend of tobacco that was given by the county to a repre- 
sentative. It was an appeal to the people to vote for a man 
who would represent them for the smallest sum. In 1699 the 
Assembly enacted a law that "No person or persons hereafter 
to be elected as a Burgess or Burgesses, shall directly or indi- 
rectly, by any ways or means at his or their proper charge 
before his or their election, give, present, or allow to any per- 
son or persons having a voice or vote in such elections, any 
money, meat, drink, or provisions, or make any present, gift, 
reward, or entertainment, or any promise, engagement, or obli- 
gation, to give or allow any meat, money, drink or provisions, 
present, reward, or entertainment, in order to procure the 
vote or votes of such person or persons for hie or their elec- 
tion to be a Burgess or Burgesses. And every person or per- 
sons 'so giving, presenting, or allowing, making, promising, or 
engaging any money, meat, drink, or provisions, in order to 
procure such election, being elected shall be incapable to sit 
and act as a Burgess in that Assembly, but that such election 
shall be void to all intents and purposes as if the said returns 
or election had never been made." 

Evidently there was some fraud and bribery being done in 
the elections. Governor Spotswood, about fifteen years after- 
ward, complained very bitterly of the fact that there were 
many brawls and much corruption on election days because 
of the actions of the voters. We find statements in 1752 of 
contested elections. We are told that on the day of election 
in a certain county the wife of a candidate sent to the court- 
house a hogshead of punch, which was placed within one hun- 
dred yards of the courthouse door. This hogshead was put 
in charge of a negro slave, who invited all persons passing 
that way to partake freely of this punch. The said candidate 
was duly elected, and upon being questioned concerning this 



282 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

matter, deposed that his wife had done this without his sanc- 
tion and approval, and that the negro had invited persons to 
drink before the election without the wife's sanction and ap- 
proval, it having - been her purpose to invite all, whether his 
friends or opponents, to freely partake after the polls had 
been closed. The Committee on Elections of the House of 
Burgesses reported that the Burgess was excused, and he was 
not expelled from the House. In the same year, however, two 
worthy representatives, John Chiswell and John Syme, elected 
from the county of Hanover, were expelled from the House 
because they had treated voters throughout the county in their 
effort to secure their election. Again, in 1775, we find the 
charge of procuring votes by treating brought against Henry 
Lee, of Prince William. He acknowledged the same and was 
expelled. The charge was brought against a delegate from 
Elizabeth City county, but he was excused. In 1756 George 
Washington was elected a member of the House of Burgesses 
from the county of Frederick. The previous year he had 
stood for election and had been defeated through the influence 
o : a tavern keeper. At the time of the second election he was 
not present in the county, but Colonel James Wood, then 
clerk, acted as his representative and agent. After the elec- 
tion he presented to Mr. Washington a bill for £39, 6s., ex- 
penses for the election. Some of the items were a hogshead 
and a barrel of punch, thirty-five gallons of strong cider, and 
dinner for those who voted for Washington. About this same 
time a very strenuous law was passed against treating at elec- 
tions. Doubtless Mr. Washington felt that he had been guilty 
of a very serious offense ; anyhow, we never again hear of any 
such accusation against Washington himself. 

There were many other contested cases in which the charge 
of treating was the main point involved. The contested elec- 
tion of Danridge vs. Littlepage, in 1764, in which Patrick 



POLITICS IN COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 283 

Henry was counsel for the plaintiff, was a similar case. An 
interesting case also was the case of Nash vs. Marable, in 
which it was shown that Marable had paid men to conduct 
all men who voted for him to a bar, where all the voters were 
treated at Marable's expense. He was expelled from the 
House and Naeh was seated in his stead. To treat became so 
common that the very best men in the colony had to indulge 
in it in order to be elected. We are told that James Madison 
failed to be elected in the House of Delegates in 1777 because 
he refused to treat. There was a strong opposition to this 
method of procedure, and many of the best people in the State, 
about the time of the Revolution, tried earnestly to break it 
up. An interesting petition, begging the Legislature to pass 
a severe law which would forbid treating, is preserved by 
Bishop Meade in his "Old Churches and Families of Virginia." 
The petition was signed by Edward Pendleton and many 
others. The newspapers also begged the citizens to vote for 
the best men, and not to be influenced in any way by the hos- 
pitality which might be extended by some of the candidates. 
Nevertheless we know that for a long time the custom con- 
tinued to exist in Virginia — practically as long as the court- 
houses were the centres at which the elections were held — 
the successful candidates, after the election was over, re- 
maining at the courthouses for several days, treating their 
friends promiscuously. 

We are, therefore, justified in concluding that so far as 
elections were concerned in Virginia, whether the electors were 
freeholders, housekeepers, or ordinary freemen, the question 
has always been raised as to whether the elections were fairly- 
conducted and were free from corruption. We are probably 
safe in assuming that colonial politics were somewhat tainted, 
and that family influence and bribery were not altogether 
absent. Even with restricted suffrage and with the elections 



284 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

held under the viva voce system and at infrequent intervals, 
there were frequent disturbances at the polls, resulting in fisti- 
cuffs or a duel, followed by much drinking and treating after 
the election, not to mention what was done immediately be- 
fore the election by the friends and agents of the candidates. 
Inside the legislative body there were always rings, chiefly 
considering the personal interest of some individual as opposed 
to the interest of the entire colony. The one redeeming fea- 
ture was that when the politicians came to deal with the broad 
questions which affected the relation of the colony to the 
mother country or the governmental powers exercised by 
the Governor as a royal representative, a majority of the Bur- 
gesses took a high position for liberty, an attitude which re- 
sulted in the rejecting by Virginia and the people of America 
of kingly government, of privileged orders or institutions 
savoring of nobility, of the primogeniture and entailed systems, 
and of an established church. Thus out of the chaotic condi- 
tions and conflicting factions has been realized a republican 
form of government. 



CHAPTER XX. 
THE COLONIAL GENTLEMAN. 

The question as to how far the society of the Virginia 
Colony was affected by the presence of so large a poor and 
serving class has been passed upon in previous chapters, 
the conclusion being that to no appreciable extent was any 
impression made by this class of people. Many of these, to 
be sure, came to places of usefulness and respectability, but 
only a few of them achieved any social or political distinction. 

The Virginia colonial gentleman was very much the same 
sort of a man as he was on the Hudson or in New England. 
Mr. Thacker, in his "Recollections of Old Plantation Life," 
describing the visitors to his father's home, says : 

"Among them were jolly old Virginia gentlemen, eccentric 
old Virginia gentlemen, prosy old Virginia gentlemen, courtly 
old Virginia gentlemen, plain-mannered old Virginia gentle- 
men, charming old Virginia gentlemen and uninteresting old 
Virginia gentlemen, many of them graduates of William and 
Mary College." 

It is to be observed that, however differently endowed 
these visitors were, all of them seemed entitled to the name 
of gentlemen. Doubtless these were in line of true succession 
to the first gentlemen of the colony. 

There can be no doubt but that there was such a class 
of men in the colony who were entitled to the name of gen- 
tlemen as a social distinction. This does not mean necessarily 
that they were of noble lineage or that they always carried 

285 



286 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

themselves in appreciation of the fact that they were gentle- 
men, but it does mean that there was in the heterogeneous 
society of the colony men of such ancestry, influence and 
culture as separated them from other classes, and to whom 
was accorded the name of gentlemen. Why there should be 
any disposition to offer any contention about this fact seems 
hard to understand. There does not seem to be any desire 
on the part of any one to claim any more for the Virginia 
gentleman than for other gentlemen of other colonies or of 
other days. There is, however, to be discovered in certain 
literature an insistence more or less pronounced that the Vir- 
ginia gentleman is not entitled to all that has been claimed 
for him. The truth is that in some quarters the Virginia gen- 
tleman seems to be hard to account for. Just how, under 
colonial conditions, there could have existed such a person- 
age, creates a demand on the part of some for philosophic 
explanation. The fact remains, however, that there was in- 
deed such a personage as the Virginia gentleman, a historical 
entity in the annals of colonial Virginia. 

One of the things that seems difficult to account for in 
the Virginia gentleman is that in many instances he was 
really a cultivated man, and of him is frequently asked the 
astonishing question, "Whence knoweth this man letters?" 
Mr. Gordon McCabe evidently had this in mind when he 
wrote : 

"The product was here, for the number of educated Vir- 
ginians was large as compared with such persons in other 
colonies, but the machinery appeared to be wanting. And 
in a country peopled with men of high culture (for that time), 
where there was great political knowledge and experience, 
the educational function can hardly be traced. The fact re- 
mains, however, that the list of the Revolutionary leaders in 
Congress and State politics, from 1765 to 1799, would be very 



THE COLONIAL GENTLEMAN. 287 

much less in number and membership were the Virginians to 
be stricken from it." 

Allusion has been made from time to time in the course 
of these chapters to the number of colonists taking* part in 
the affairs of the colony in one way or another, who were 
graduates of Oxford and Cambridge in the old country, and 
also to the large number who received academic training at 
the William and Mary College at Williamsburg, and others 
still who had been sent back to the mother country to re- 
ceive academic instruction and training at Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. Bishop Meade calls attention to the fact that in these 
times no man could receive ordination in the Church of Eng- 
land, generally speaking, without having a degree from Cam- 
bridge, Oxford, Dublin or Edinburgh, and also that there were 
lawyers in the colony who had studied at the Temple Bar, in 
London, and physicians practicing medicine who bore diplo- 
mas from Edinburgh. 

There was scarcely a home of any pretensions among the 
planters but that books of a fine and solid sort could be found. 
In the earlier part of the eighteenth century libraries, "com- 
prehensive in subject and extensive for that period," became 
quite numerous. Colonel William Byrd's library at West- 
over numbered nearly four thousand volumes. Mr. Ralph 
Wormely, at Rosegille, had a library of four hundred titles, 
and Mr. Richard Lee's library numbered three hundred titles. 
Large libraries were owned by Randolph, George Mason and 
John Herbert, and a Mr. Mercer's library numbered fifteen 
hundred volumes. And so throughout the colony books were 
to be found of solid worth and comprehensive in scope. A 
writer in the "Virginia Magazine of History" may be quoted 
as saying: 

"The study of our old county records has thrown light 
on many subjects connected with our history, but in no in- 



288 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

stance has a greater revision of former opinion been caused 
than in regard to books and reading. Northern and English 
writers were used to saying that the Virginians were brave 
and hospitable, but given up to the pleasures of the field and 
card table and race track, and almost entirely without ac- 
quaintance with books." 

A study of the county records shows a vast number of 
books appraised by executors or mentioned in wills, all of 
which indicating that the Virginia gentleman was a much 
more widely read man than he has been commonly supposed 
to have been. There can be no doubt but that if the Virginia 
gentleman had turned his attention to literature instead of 
politics, there would have been as many progenitors of Amer- 
ican literature in Virginia as there were in the New England 
colonies. There is small doubt but that there were quite as 
many in the Virginia Colony endowed by nature and equipped 
by training for a work of this sort as could have been found 
elsewhere at that time and under similar conditions. But 
their energies were turned in other directions, and the con- 
tribution of the Virginia gentleman was in the political con- 
struction of a new government. Even as it was, there are a 
few instances where really valuable contributions were made 
to American literature and under circumstances that were not 
propitious for such work. 

An author signing himself "T. M.," whose identity has 
never been thoroughly well established, though he is supposed 
to have been Thomas Matthews, a son of the Governor of 
that name, wrote "The Beginning, Progress and Conclusion 
of Bacon's Rebellion" in the years 1775 and 1776. Then, in 
1676, a hundred years before the Revolution, there is a very 
admirable production by Mrs. Anne Cotton, of O Creek. Mr. 
Esten Cooke speaks of her as a "shadow." Her work was en- 
titled "An Account of Our Late Troubles in Virginia." "A 



THE COLONIAL GENTLEMAN. 289 

Narrative of the Indian and Civil Wars in Virginia in the 
Years 1675-1676," is by an author absolutely unknown. Two 
valuable histories of Virginia were produced in the first half 
of the eighteenth century by Robert Beverley, published in 
1705, and one by William Stith, published in 1747. Mr. Bev- 
erley's history is valuable mainly for the fact of its thorough 
treatment of the political and economic conditions of society 
in Virginia. He was a most patriotic Virginian, but he dealt 
with characters and conditions under his treatment with per- 
fect candor and frankness. 

Mr. Stith was a professor at William and Mary College. 
His work is considered a most valuable contribution to the 
history of colonial days. His sincere desire for accuracy won 
for him the name of "The Accurate Stith." He had planned to 
write a complete history of Virginia, but for some reason he 
never succeeded in carrying out his purpose. Perhaps the 
most brilliant contribution to the literature of the day was 
by Hon. William Byrd, of Westover, a Virginia gentleman of 
exceeding fine culture and of charming and winsome social 
gifts. He is described as "one of the brightest stars in the 
social skies in Virginia," and as having had "personal beauty, 
elegant manners, literary culture and the greatest gayety of 
disposition." His style is exuberant, piquant and unconscious, 
thoughtless and careless of what critics might say, or as to 
how his productions might be received. His writings have 
been preserved under the title of "The Westover Manuscripts." 
The longest of his productions is "The History of the Divid- 
ing Line." It is the ,story of his journey and labor in con- 
nection with the fixing of the boundaries between Virginia 
and North Carolina. This writing bristles with wit and hu- 
mor, and is a thoroughly vigorous and wholesome book. In 
much the same vein he wrote afterwards "The Journey to 
the Land of Eden," and still later "Progress to the Mines." 



2cp COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

If space permitted, mention might be made of earlier 
writings on the part of the Englishmen associated with the 
establishment of the first English colony in America, and of 
other writings at later dates by Virginians. In these sporadic 
contributions there can at least be discovered suggestions of 
what the Virginia gentleman might have done in literature 
had he been so minded. 

Perhaps the most distinguishing attribute of the colonial 
gentleman was his cheerful and assiduous hospitality. It may 
be the conditions surrounding him are to be credited with the 
necessity that called for the cultivation of the grace of hos- 
pitality. The lapses in the neighborhoods of the settlement 
were very great, and ordinarily homes were widely removed 
from one another. Mails were irregular and infrequent. Fa- 
cilities for travel and intercommunication were very meagre, 
so that any contact with the outer world became an interest- 
ing episode in the lives of the people. These conditions made 
hospitality not only necessary, but transformed it into an ex- 
ceeding great privilege. It was pleasant to have around the 
table and the evening hearthstone any one who brought tidings 
of the outer world. Mr. Beverley says : "The inhabitants were 
very courteous to travelers, who needed no other recommenda- 
tion than the fact of being a human creature. A stranger has 
but to inquire upon the road where any gentleman or good 
housekeeper lives, and there he may depend upon being re- 
ceived with hospitality. This good nature is so general among 
the people that the gentry, when they go abroad, order their 
principal servants to entertain all visitors with everything the 
plantation affords. And the poor planter who has but one 
bed will often sit up all night or lie upon the floor or couch 
to make room for a weary traveler after his journey." 

There are numerous and most entertaining accounts of 
where whole families would enjoy for weeks, and even months, 



THE COLONIAL GENTLEMAN. 291 

at a time the hospitality of another household. It is related 
how, in their eagerness for entertainment, the heads of estab- 
lishments would place at convenient points upon the country 
road dusky messengers who were to press entertainment and 
hospitality upon any one who chanced to pass that way. This 
hospitality was as affluent as it was cordial. The Virginian 
had gotten far away from the hardships of the earlier years 
of the colonial life, and by the beginning of the eighteenth 
century the saying of Mr. Berkeley was very likely altogether 
true that "the Colony of Virginia was the most flourishing 
country the sun ever shone over." 

A wonderful change had taken place since the first days 
of the great plantations. Luxury and plenty had taken the 
place of discomfort and want. There was produced on the 
plantation well-nigih everything that ministered to bodily 
comfort and ease. Food there was in rich and varied pro- 
fusion ; luxuries, such as books, wines, silks and laces were 
exchanged at the planter's wharf for his tobacco, so that the 
cost of hospitality was never taken into account, and the ob- 
ligations, if there were any, seemed to be on the part of the 
host rather than the guest. Even under the changed condi- 
tions that have come about since the great Civil War, it is 
hard for the impoverished Virginian to forget the kindly trick 
of hospitality. Even to-day a stranger may knock at nightfall 
at well-nigh any rural home, and if any reasonable account 
can be given of himself he is sure to be received and the cor- 
dial, if not the affluent, hospitality of the elder day bestowed 
upon him. 

The colonial gentleman was a man of exuberant spirits, 
and great attention was given to the finding of avenues for 
its expression and expenditure. After the long years of hard- 
ships and sufferings there followed an era of unusual and ex- 
traordinary freeness and gaiety. The opening years of the 



292 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

eighteenth century have truly been designated as the golden 
age of Virginia. They are alluded to more than any other 
days as "the good old times." The arrangement of the so- 
ciety and the conditions of industrial and commercial life were 
such as to afford large time and opportunity for the pursuit 
of pleasure. During the winter months a large number of 
planters went to Williamsburg and indulged in an incessant 
round of gaieties of one sort and another. There was the 
social life and the fine social functions incident to the annual 
meeting of the Grand Assembly. There the theatre was 
brought and companies from London presented to the colonial 
gentleman Shakespeare and Congreve for his instruction and 
entertainment. There were the colonial balls, given at fre- 
quent intervals, in the famous Apollo apartment in the Raleigh 
Tavern. A glimpse of this joyous and happy and careless life 
is to be seen in the early letters of Jefferson, where he tells 
of the escapades of the college boys and of the throbbing 
streets, and the balls at the Raleigh Tavern, in which he and 
his dear Belinda danced the happy hours away. 

Not all of the amusements indulged in by the colonial gen- 
tleman were free from the criticisms of coarseness and cruelty. 
There was a favorite entertainment furnished by a cruel game 
that was called gouging. Two combatants engaged one an- 
other in muscular contest, the main purpose of which was to 
gouge an eye out, and when once the strong fingers of a com- 
batant's hand found the eyeball of the other, unless he cried 
"enough" and gave up the fight, he was apt to lose his eye as 
the reward of his foolish courage. It is said that certain men 
had their fingers and nails manicured in such a way as to in- 
crease their effectiveness in a conflict of this ,sort, the nails 
being carefully sharpened and toughened by some mysterious 
process known to the expert gougers of the day. 

Cards and dice were also popular amusements, indulgence 



THE COLONIAL GENTLEMAN 293 

in which sometimes amounted to a widespread craze. More 
than once the Grand Assembly felt that the widespread cus- 
tom demanded official recognition and regulation. Debts for 
gambling could not be collected by any process of law, and 
keepers of taverns and public houses were forbidden, under 
.severe penalty, to allow gambling in public places. 

Horse-racing was considered the especial sport of the 
colonial gentleman. The development of the race-horse was 
very rapid. It was a long time before the colonial gentleman 
ever thought of the horse as being for drudgery, but consid- 
ered him as an animal to afford them pleasure rather than 
profit, so that great pride was taken especially in the saddle- 
horse. Horseback riding was a univensal accomplishment, 
both for the colonial gentleman and the colonial dame. One 
of the first signs of increased prosperity then, even as it is 
now, was the purchase of a horse by the colonial swain. It 
was natural that, with such a general pride in the horse, 
trials of excellence in speed and durability should follow. So 
it came about that horse-racing was the universal sport among 
the gentlemen of the day. There were certain aristocratic pre- 
tensions about the sport that received legislative recognition, 
and there were enactments governing the sport, excluding 
from it those who were not entitled to the name of gentlemen. 
There is a record in the court of York county where it is said 
that "James Bullock, a tailor, having made a race for his mare 
to run with a horse belonging to Matthew Slater, for two 
thousand pounds of tobacco and caske, it being contrary to 
law for a laborer to make a race, being a sport only for gen- 
tlemen, is fined for the same one hundred pounds of tobacco 
and caske," and the record proceeds to further state that 
"whereas Mr. Matthew Slater and James Bullock, by condi- 
tions under the hand and seal of the said Slater, that his horse 
should run out of the way so that Bullock's mare might win, 



294 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

which is an apparent cheat, is ordered to be put in the stocks 
and there sit for one hour." 

In 1730 it was very common for horses to be kept only for 
racing, and at many convenient places "race paths" were es- 
tablished. At Williamsburg- there were elaborate arrange- 
ments made for the conduct of races twice a year, in the au- 
tumn and in the spring. Provisions were made for starters, 
judges and the usual regulations as to weights, handicaps of 
one sort and another. The course at Williamsburg was for 
the mile, two-mile, three-mile and even four-mile heats, it be- 
ing plainly evident that the Virginian was seeking not simply 
the quality of speed, but the combined qualities of speed and 
durability in their racing .stock. 

Cockfighting was a general and gruesome pastime among 
the Virginia gentlemen, and great attention was given to the 
rearing of good fighting stock and great care given in its train- 
ing. The sport seems to have been a very general one. The 
authorities at William and Mary College were obliged to leg- 
islate strenuously against the sport as practiced among the 
students. Mr. Cooke rescues from obscurity, and puts in 
the niche of fame, a breed of fighting cocks of the Spangles 
variety, which had been victors on many battlefields, and 
which were called "Bacon's Thunderbolts." We are disposed 
to hand this breed of bellicose roosters down to increased fame 
by making record of their name in this place. 

As an indication of the spirit of the day in matters of sport 
and recreation, we give the following quotation from the "Ga- 
zette" of October, 1737, which announced that "there are to 
be horse-racing and several other diversions for the entertain- 
ment of the gentlemen and ladies at the Old Field. Besides 
the races there is to be given a hat to the value of two shil- 
lings to be cudgelled for, and that after the first challenge is 
made, the drum is to beat every quarter hour for a challenge 



THE COLONIAL GENTLEMAN. 295 

around the ring and not to be played with the left hands. A 
reward is offered for successful competitors in a musical com- 
petition in which twenty fiddles are to be used, and each fid- 
dler is to play a different tune. Twelve boys are to run one 
hundred and twelve yards for a hat worth twelve shillings. 
A choir of ballads is to be sung for; a pair of silver buckles 
are to be wrestled for; the prettiest girl on the ground is to 
have a pair of handsome .silk: stockings, of one pistole's value.'' 
And it is added that "as this mirth is designed to be purely 
innocent and void of offense, all persons resorting there are 
desired to behave themselves with becoming sobriety." 

The colonial Virginia gentleman may be commended for 
his gallantry. His treatment of woman was always with the 
highest consideration and the utmost courtesy. It is refresh- 
ing to read in these unceremonious days of the deferential 
treatment that characterized the mutual courses of the colon- 
ial gentleman and dame. While domestic felicity was unre- 
strained, the entire household was conducted upon a high 
plane of pronounced mutual regard and respect. Many of 
these deferential offices may seem, in this late day, unneces- 
sary and artificial, and yet it is not hard to see how present 
domestic conditions might be greatly improved if there were 
practiced a little more of the ceremony indulged in by these 
builders of first American homes. 

It is said that the Virginia gentleman was sometimes rather 
violent and insistent in his courtships. The story of Governor 
Nicholson's attempt at the hand of Mr. Louis Burwell's daugh- 
ter is a case in point. She refused to capitulate to this gen- 
tleman's violent assault upon the citadel of her heart, and 
stubbornly refused his insistent overtures. He became furi- 
ously mad, and stormed and threatened in a most violent fash- 
ion, confiding even to Commissioner Blair his purpose to cut 
at least three throats if Miss Burwell ever consented to marry 



296 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

any one other than himself. He supposed that this sanguinary- 
outbreak on his part would result in the cutting of the throats 
of the bridegroom, the minister and the judge who issued the 
license. Nobody seemed especially afraid at this violent out- 
break of the impetuous Governor, for it is a matter of record 
that Miss Burwell really did marry afterward other than His 
Excellency, and was forever afterwards happy. 

The colonial gentleman seemed to have a penchant for 
widows. Some one, herself a woman, has called this "the 
period of belleship of widows." Washington, Jefferson and 
Madison all married widows. Even the stern Sir William 
Berkeley was taken captive by a young widow of Warwick 
county, known as Dame Francis Stevens. After Berkeley's 
death, being a widow again, with her usual prerogative, she 
entered into the state of matrimony with her late husband's 
secretary, Mr. Philip Ludwell, clinging, however, fast and 
fondly to the title of Lady Berkeley. 

The marriageable age set for females in these colonial days 
was at a much more youthful period than is now thought wise 
and well. At ridiculously immature ages many colonial vir- 
gins took upon themselves the grave responsibilities of mar- 
ried life. A woman who had reached the mature age of 
twenty-five summers was looked upon askance and regarded 
as being peculiar, or else she would have married many years 
before. The great Chief Justice Marshall met his sweetheart 
when she was only fourteen years of age, and restrained his 
matrimonial ambitions and waited two long years for his bride, 
until she had reached the mature age of sixteen years. 

In his religion, as in politics, the colonial gentleman was 
at least loyal to its outward institutions. In the main they 
were adherents and strong advocates of the Church of Eng- 
land. Some one has been put on record as having said to Mr. 
Madison that "a man might be a Christian in any church, but 



THE COLONIAL GENTLEMAN. 297 

a gentleman must belong- tp the Church of England." Fre- 
quently, of course, these gentlemen were genuinely religious, 
and were most piously devoted to the church and to its creed 
and benevolences, but frequently their devotion in these mat- 
ters seems to have been strangely inconsistent with their prac- 
tice in worldly affairs. It was characteristic of the devotion 
of the cavalier that while every act of his life might disallow 
and gainsay the creed of his church, there never was a time 
but that he was willing to lay down his life for her good and 
prosperity. It is ,stated as a matter resisted by the ecclesi- 
astical authorities that many ceremonies usually discharged 
in the church were practiced in the homes of the people. The 
christening of children, the marriage ceremony and funeral 
services came more and more to be matters that were per- 
formed in the home rather than at the church. After the con- 
ditions of plantation life had obtained, the burial places of 
the dead were also removed from the church burial yards. 
Each family had usually its own burying ground contiguous 
to the homestead. Mr. Hugh Jones wrote : "It is customary 
to bury in gardens or orchards, where whole families lie in- 
terred together in a spot generally handsomely enclosed, 
planted with evergreens and the graves kept decently. Hence 
likewise arose the occasion for preaching funeral sermons in 
houses, where, at funerals, are assembled a great congregation 
of neighbors and friends. If you insist on having the ser- 
vices and ceremonies at the church, they say that thev will be 
without them unless performed after this manner." 

From the above description of the character and method of 
life of the colonial gentleman may be gotten a fairly good idea 
of him. Proud and somewhat pretentious, ceremonial in man- 
ner and speech, not without culture nor without sympathy for 
lofty ideals, kindly and democratic in his contact and dealing 
with his neighbors, however poor, hospitable to a most gen- 



298 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

erous degree, fond of his family and gallant in his bearing 
toward the fair sex, interested in all public questions and 
participating in all affairs of State, fond of the field and its 
sports, in the earlier years of the colony loyal to his King, 
and a devout and devoted defender of his church and her creed. 
Perhaps no saner view was ever taken of him than is con- 
veyed in these words of Mr. Fiske: 

"On the whole it was a noble type of the rural gentry that 
the Old Dominion had to show. Manly simplicity, love of 
home and family, breezy activity, disinterested public spirit, 
thorough wholesomeness and integrity ; such were the fea- 
tures of the society whose consummate flower was George 
Washington." 



CHAPTER XXI. 
THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT.— 1716-1774. 

At the time of Bacon's Rebellion all of the settlements in 
Virginia were confined to the east of the line drawn from the 
present site of Alexandria, through Fredericksburg, Richmond 
and Petersburg, to the North Carolina line. In the year 1685 
there were twenty counties in Virginia, with a population of 
about sixty thousand, six thousand of which were negro slaves, 
and about an equal number were indentured servants. Fol- 
lowing the removal of Mr. Berkeley, in 1677, for fifty years. 
Virginia had a succession of exceedingly fine Governors, and 
affairs moved along prosperously and smoothly except for the 
depression brought about by the effect of the navigation laws 
on the tobacco industry. So serious was the disaffection 
caused by this widespread depression that there were several 
tobacco insurrections which resulted in the crops of tobacco 
being cut in the fields, and in other disturbances in the colonies. 
The tobacco insurrection in the days of Governor Culpeper is 
especially to be noted. Two planters who took part in this 
insurrection were hanged. 

As stated in a previous chapter, the land grant question 
was an important one in the politics of the day, and is men- 
tioned here as a matter that seriously interfered with emigra- 
tion. At first the land grants were made in the name of the 
London Company, but after 1623 they were made in the name 
of the Governor and Council. Each shareholder in the London 
Company was entitled, for each share subscribed to in the 

299 



3oo COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

company, to one hundred acres in the first distribution to be 
made along the James River, and was also entitled to have, 
for each share he owned, one hundred acres in a second dis- 
tribution which might be made, after he had seeded a planta- 
tion. 

In 1610 all quit rents against original shareholders were 
abolished. It was also provided that after a term of service 
in the colony, servants should receive one hundred acres of 
land. Every person who brought over settlers to Virginia 
would be granted fifty acres for each settler. This latter pro- 
vision was not at all satisfactory, as often captains of ships 
claimed and secured fifty acres of land for each person who 
might sail in their ships, although they had nothing at all to 
do with the securing of such passengers. 

But these provisions were all overlooked when Virginia 
came to be a royal province, and the King granted at will 
large tracts of land to his favorites, without reference to any 
provisions or settlements or even of assignments already made 
in these districts. 

In 1710 there came to Virginia Alexander Spotswood, as 
Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, the Earl of Orkney being 
the Governor of the colony, a position which he held for forty 
years, during which time he never set foot in the Virginia 
Colony. The absence of the Governor was a source of regret 
to many of the colonists, though Spotswood himself, on the 
whole, was a very satisfactory Lieutenant-Governor, which po- 
sition he held for twelve years. He was a trained soldier, 
having fought in the battle of Blenheim, under the great Duke 
of Marlborough, and where he was wounded. 

At the time of Spotswood's arrival there were about 
twenty-five counties in Virginia, containing a population of 
seventy-five thousand whites and twenty-three thousand ne- 
groes. The colony could not be said to have been at that time 



THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT— 1716-74. 301 

in a very prosperous condition. The price of tobacco was still 
very low, and the coasts were being constantly pillaged by 
pirates. These latter were soon after subdued and driven from 
the shores of Virginia. 

In 1 710 the settlement still had not passed the line mark- 
ing the head of tidewater, except here and there along the 
streams that flowed into the river with tides. Some few brave 
pioneers, however, had pushed into the wilderness and ex- 
plored as far as the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where 
could be found the rude homes of some frontiersmen, but no 
white man had yet crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains and 
looked into the imperial Valley of Virginia. 

About the 1st of August, 1716, Governor Spotswood or- 
ganized a band to explore the western country. He drove in 
his coach, accompanied by his staff on horseback, from Wil- 
liamsburg to "Germanna," his country home, just above Fred- 
ericksburg, on the outskirts of the settled portion of Virginia. 
Here, on account of the fact that there were no roads to the 
west, he was compelled to leave his coach, and he and his 
band of some fifty-odd set out on horseback along the Rap- 
pahannock River, and after thirty-six days from Williams- 
burg they scaled the mountain near Swift Run Gap, and for 
the first time white men looked down upon the beautiful val- 
ley of the Shenandoah. 

When Spotswood arrived in the colony, in 1710, he had 
written to the Council of Trades, in London, that some ad- 
venturers had found that the mountains were not more than 
one hundred miles from upper inhabitants, and that they had 
gone to the top of one of these mountains. At this time the 
valley was inhabited by the Shawnee Indians, whose tribes 
stretched back into the Ohio Valley. The valley was fre- 
quented by buffalo, bear, wolf and panther. 

After Spotswood and his party had descended the moun- 



302 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

tain and found a fordable place, they crossed to the west of 
the Shenandoah River and took possession of all the land 
in the name of the King. A most pleasing account of this 
adventure is given by Mr. John Fontaine in his diary. He 
said that they crossed the Shenandoah River on the 6th of 
September. He declared that the stones they met with were 
so hard that the Governor's engraving irons made no impres- 
sion upon them, but that he engraved his name on a tree by 
the river, and the Governor buried a bottle with a paper en- 
closed, on which he wrote that he "took possession of this 
place in the name of King George I. of England." Fontaine 
tells of the dinner that they took together on the 6th of Sep- 
tember in the following words: 

"We had a good dinner, and after it we got the men to- 
gether and drank the King's health in champagne, and fired 
a volley ; the Prince's health in Burgundy, and fired a volley ; 
and all the rest of the royal family in claret, and fired a vol- 
ley. We drank the Governor's health and fired another vol- 
ley. We had several sorts of liquor, viz. : Virginia red wines 
and white wines, Irish Usquebaugh brandy, shrub, two sorts 
of rum, champagne, canary, cherry, punch, cider, etc." 

Evidently this was not a temperance campaign upon which 
these gentlemen had come. After eight weeks, which, we 
imagine, was not any too long a time for them to become 
thoroughly sober, the Governor and his party returned. 
Spotswood then established the Order of the Knights of the 
Golden Horseshoe, and to each man he gave a horseshoe set 
with diamonds, and upon which were engraved the words 
"Sic juvat transcendere montes." Spotswood, on writing 
about this trip, said that the object of it was to see that the 
western lands, especially the English settlements, were pro- 
tected against the French encroachments. He said that he 
discovered that it was but thirty-six days' journey to a great 



THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT— 17 16-' 74. 303 

nation of Indians, living on the river which discharged itself 
into Lake Erie, and that that lake could be seen from the 
western side of one of the smaller mountains which he saw, 
and the way thither was very practicable, and he advised that 
a settlement should be made there for the protection of the 
English settlements. At once all of this great country which 
had been seen by Spotswood was organized into the county 
of Spotsylvania, named in honor of the Governor. It extended 
from the head of tidewater on the Rappahannock River, across 
the mountains into Ohio. Glowing reports of this country 
were circulated, and in a few years settlers were trooping 
into the valley. One Adam Miller entered the valley in the 
year 1729. 

Forty thousand acres of land, near where Winchester now 
stands, were granted by Governor Gooch, in 1730, to two 
Pennsylvania brothers — John and Isaac Van Meter. Their 
grant was bought by another Pennsylvania^ Joyst Hite, who 
removed his family to Virginia in 1732, and fixed his resi- 
dence a few miles south of the present town of Winchester. 

In 1638 there were two houses where Winchester now 
stands, and in 1752 there was organized a town. Settlers 
poured in very rapidly, and Staunton was settled about 1740. 
The county of Orange was soon carved out of the county of 
Spotsylvania. Later Augusta and Frederick were formed 
from Orange. 

A dispute arose between Hite and Lord Fairfax, the latter 
claiming that all the land granted to Hite was included in his 
grant of the Northern Neck. Fairfax entered a caveat against 
Hite in 1736, which was followed by a suit against Lord Fair- 
fax by Hite, which was not decided until 1786, long after the 
death of both Hite and Lord Fairfax had occurred. The judg- 
ment was rendered in favor of Hite and his vendees. The dis- 
pute, however, between Lord Fairfax and Hite greatly re- 



304 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

tarded the settlement of the lower valley, and forced the set- 
tlers higher up the valley. The counties formed from or in- 
cluded in the grant made to Lord Fairfax were Lancaster, 
Northumberland, Richmond, Stafford, King George, Prince 
William, Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, the present 
Rappahannock county, Madison, Page, Shenandoah and Fred- 
erick in Virginia, and Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley 
and Jefferson, in West Virginia. 

The first houses of the settlers were log cabins, covered 
with split clapboards and with poles to keep them in place. 
The floors were frequently pnly of the earth. Later the hewn 
log house was introduced, and after awhile houses were made 
of boards sawed with a whipsaw. It was a long time before 
sawmills were introduced. The dress of these settlers who 
went to the valley was very different from that of the set- 
tlers of Eastern Virginia. It was altogether of homespun 
material. The settlers had few things that were imported 
from England. In colonial days the married men generally 
shaved their heads and wore wigs. About the time of the 
Revolution this custom was laid aside. Knee-breeches were 
in vogue, but the gentlemen in the western part of the State 
took to wearing long trousers long before they did in Eastern 
Virginia. The women used the short gown and petticoat 
made of the plainest material. The German element which 
came into the colony usually wore tight calico caps on their 
heads. In the summer season they wore no other clothes 
than a linen shift and petticoat, with bare feet, hands and 
arms. They worked in the harvest field with the men, and 
many of the women were the most expert reapers with the 
scythe. Not infrequently they followed also the plow. 
There were few slaves, if any, introduced into this section in 
colonial days. The barns in the valley were better than the 
houses in which the farmers dwelt. Among the poorer 



THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT— 1716-^4. 305 

class and the middle class their beds were of straw chaff, 
with a fine feather bed for the winter. The German and 
Dutch element in the valley proved to be most excellent and 
thrifty farmers. 

In 1738 the settlers in the valley of the Scotch-Irish ex- 
traction requested the Governor to allow them to exercise 
their right of worship, claiming that they were absolutely 
loyal to the ruling house in England. The Governor replied 
that no interruption would be imposed upon them in the ex- 
ercise of their religious rights, and that they would have all 
the rights entitled to them under the English act of tolera- 
tion. They were not required to do what was done in East- 
ern Virginia, to register their meeting-houses, neither was 
the number limited. Neither were they liable to fine for not 
attending the parish church. However, they were expected 
to contribute to the support of the parish, and really not until 
1781 was a person legally married unless the ceremony was 
exercised by the minister of the established church. 

Among the first settlers to come into the upper valley 
and settle in the present Augusta county, was John Lewis. 
Lewis was am Irishman, of the rank of a gentleman, and his 
wife, Margaret Lynn, was of noble ancestry. In Ireland he 
lived on the property of a cruel lord, who, becoming jealous 
of the prosperity of his tenant, tried to make Lewis give up 
his lease. When the latter refused, the nobleman came with 
some men, attacked Lewis's house, and firing upon it without 
notice, killed an invalid brother. This so enraged Lewis that, 
with his servants, he killed the nobleman and his steward. He 
thereupon fled from Ireland, came to America, and was the 
first white man to settle in Augusta county. His home was 
only a few miles from Staunton, which city he founded. 

Soon after Lewis had settled in the valley he visited Wil- 
liamsburg, where he met with Benjamin Borden, who, greatly 



3 o6 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

pleased with Lewis's accounts of the valley, decided to cros.-; 
the Blue Ridge and to explore that region. At that time buf- 
faloes roamed in the valley, and one day the sons of John 
Lewis caught a little buffalo calf, which they presented to 
Borden. On returning to Williamsburg, Borden gave it to 
Governor Gooch, who was so delighted with this unusual pet 
that he authorized Borden to take up five hundred thousand 
acres of land at the headwaters of the Shenandoah and James 
Rivers (Augusta and Rockbridge counties), on the condition 
that he would send settlers into the valley. Borden at once 
brought colonists from England, and soon there were thriv- 
ing settlements in this region, then a part of Orange county. 

The Lewises were Scotch-Irish, and their lives clearly in- 
dicate what type of men they were. The eldest son of John 
Lewis was Thomas, who, on account of his poor eyesight, 
could not take part in the Indian wars which harassed the 
settlers on the frontier. He was, however, a man of promi- 
nence in Augusta, which county he represented in the House 
of Burgesses, when he voted in favor of Patrick Henry's fa- 
mous resolutions of 1765 opposing the Stamp Act. He was a 
member of the Constitutional Convention that framed the first 
Virginia Constitution, and of the convention which ratified 
the Constitution of the United States in 1788. His home was 
in that part of Augusta which was made into Rockingham 
county in 1778. 

Another son of John was William, who fought in many 
wars against the Indians, and was an officer in the Revolu- 
tionary army when Tarleton drove the Virginia Legislature 
from Charlottesville. At that time William Lewis was un- 
able to go to the defense of his State on account of sickness, 
but his wife told her three sons, who were only thirteen, fif- 
teen and seventeen years of age, to prepare for war, saying: 
"Go, my children, keep back the foot of the invader from the 



THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT— 1716-74. 307 

soil of Augusta, or see my face no more." When this story 
was reported to Washington, he said: "Leave me but a ban- 
ner to plant upon the mountains of Augusta, and I will rally 
around me the men who will lift our bleeding country from 
the dust and set her free." 

For daring deeds Charles Lewis, the youngest son, was 
well known, and many a story has been repeated about him 
around the firesides of the valley. On one occasion Charles 
was taken prisoner by the Indians, who, having bound his 
hands behind him, were marching him barefooted across the 
Alleghanies. All the while he was looking for an oppor- 
tunity to escape. Finally, as he was passing along the edge 
of a deep ravine through which ran a swift mountain stream, 
he plunged fearlessly over the precipice, and as he did so he 
succeeded in breaking the cords which bound his hands. The 
Indians jumped after and chased him down the ravine. But 
he ran across a field, leaped over some fallen trees, and hid 
himself in the tall weeds. The Indians failed to find him, 
although they made a long and faithful search. While Lewis 
was lying hid in the grass he perceived a huge rattlesnake 
coiled and ready to attack him. He knew that if he shud- 
dered, or winked his eye even, that the rattlesnake would 
strike, so he kept perfectly still for more than an hour, until 
the rattlesnake crossed over his body and crawled away. 
Charles Lewis became a major in the Virginia militia, and 
fell bravely fighting the Indians at Point Pleasant. 

But the best known of the sons of John Lewis was Gen- 
eral Andrew Lewis, who was born in Ireland, probably about 
the year 1716. In personal appearance he was very imposing, 
being more than six feet high. He had a giant's frame, and 
the "earth seemed to rumble under him as he walked." He 
was stern of countenance, and repulsive to those who did not 
know him well. To the Indians the mention of his name 
brought terror. 



3o8 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

When a very young man he was engaged in many fights 
with the Indians, for hardly had the valley been settled be- 
fore Indians from the borders of the Ohio River crossed the 
Alleghanies, destroyed many homes and killed many settlers. 
Among the first to take arms against the savages were the 
Lewis brothers. 

In 1756 Governor Dinwiddie determined to send an expe- 
dition against the Shawnee Indians, who lived on the Ohio 
River near the mouth of Big Sandy River. For this under- 
taking Major Andrew Lewis was selected to command the 
forces. His little army had a long march through a great 
wilderness, for there were few settlements west of the Alle- 
ghany Mountains, the first settlers having gone to that region 
about 1748. After a month's time all of the provisions of the 
little army had been consumed, but the troops managed to 
live upon the elks and buffaloes that they shot in the forests. 
Lewis, failing to find the Indians, returned to Augusta. Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie was displeased because nothing had been ac- 
complished, and wrote that "Major Lewis and his men did 
not know the way to the Shawnee towns." Although Lewis 
had been unsuccessful in this expedition, the Governor soon 
afterwards sent him with a force into the Cherokee country. 
Hither Lewis proceeded and built a fort on the Tennessee 
River about thirty miles south of the present site of Knox- 
ville. 

In the meantime it was reported that the French and In- 
dians were marching from Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg, Pa.), 
and were going to attack Winchester, so the Governor called 
out the militia of ten counties to serve under Washington. 
Lewis was ordered to raise a company of Cherokees and to 
join Washington, but the Indians were unwilling to serve, 
and when Lewis returned from the Cherokee country he 
brought only seven warriors and three women, instead of four 



THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT— 1716-V4. 309 

hundred warriors as had been expected. Governor Dinwiddie 
wag again greatly disappointed, but he then learned that the 
Virginians could not hope to enlist the Southern Indians to 
fight the French and the Indians of the Northwest. 

The people of Augusta were in constant fear of the In- 
dian raids, so long as the French remained in control of the 
Northwest ; therefore, Lewis kept the militia of the county in 
readiness for any emergency. Great was their joy when it 
became known that William Pitt, the great English states- 
man, was determined to capture Fort Duquesne and Quebec, 
and drive the French from North America. General Forbes 
was sent (1758) to take Fort Duquesne, and Washington 
joined him with about eighteen hundred Virginia soldiers, of 
whom two companies were under the command of Major An- 
drew Lewis 

On arriving in the neighborhood of Fort Duquesne, Forbes 
sent Major Grant with eight hundred men, including Major 
Lewis and his two companies, to reconnoitre the place. Grant, 
refusing to take advice, allowed himself to be entrapped by 
the Indians. Lewis was left to guard the baggage, while 
Grant and his troops went to examine the condition of the 
garrison. Suddenly Grant was attacked by the Indians, who, 
hidden behind the trees, could not be seen, and the British 
regulars were driven back with great loss. Lewis, hearing 
the noise of the battle, hastened with his troops to the scene 
of action. He and his men were attacked by the Indians with 
tomahawk and scalping-knife. Lewis fought hand to hand 
with an Indian warrior, whom he killed. Finding himself 
surrounded by the Indians, he. surrendered to a French soldier 
in order to save his life. He was treated with great indignity, 
stripped of all his clothing and carried a prisoner to the fort. 
It is not known how long he remained in prison, but he was 
probably released when General Forbes captured Fort Du- 



3io COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

quesne. After the French were driven out of the Northwest, 
there were few Indian raids into Augusta county, and for some 
time we hear little of Lewis. 

Settlers came in great numbers to the valley, so that by 
1769 it was felt that Augusta county ought to be again di- 
vided. The southern part, then including all of Southwest 
Virginia, was cut off and made into the county of Botetourt. 
In this section, not far from the present site of Salem, An- 
drew Lewis lived, and when Botetourt was formed he was 
made a justice of the peace for that county. 

In 1774 the Governor of Virginia was Lord Dunmore. 
Many settlers had by this time pushed their way across the 
Alleghany Mountains, and some had their eyes turned to Ken- 
tucky ; but as yet no county had been organized west of the 
Alleghanies. The Indians along the Ohio River, fearing that 
they would lose their lands, rose against the whites, burned 
many settlements and killed the settlers. In retaliation some 
of the frontiersmen had attacked and killed the entire family 
of an Indian chief, named Logan. This brought on a general 
war along the frontier, and Lord Dunmore at once prepared 
to defend the western settlements. 

Andrew Lewis was appointed brigadier-general, and forth- 
with he raised a force of eleven hundred men, chiefly from Au- 
gusta, Botetourt, Culpeper and Bedford counties. These men 
were bold a nd brave frontiersmen. "They wore fringed hunting 
shirts dyed yellow, white, brown, and even red. Quaintly carved 
shot-bags and powder-horns hung from their broad belts. They 
had fur caps, or soft hats, moccasins and coarse woolen leg- 
gins reaching half way up to the thigh. Each carried his flint- 
lock, his tomahawk and scalping-knife." 

With such men Lewis marched from Levvisburg, in what 
is now Greenbrier county, one hundred and sixty miles through 
the wilderness to the juncture of the Ohio and the Kanawha 



THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT— 1716-74. 3 11 

Rivers, and took up his position on the point of land between 
the rivers known as Point Pleasant. Here he expected to be 
joined by Lord Dunmore, who commanded an army raised 
in Frederick and the adjoining counties in Northern Virginia. 
Dunmore did not arrive, but sent messages to Lewis that he 
had gone to attack the Shawnee towns across the Ohio, and 
ordered Lewis to cross the river and join him. Before Lewis 
could obey, he was attacked by the Indian leader, Cornstalk, 
with two thousand men. The battle was a fierce and bloody 
struggle, and was a sort of single-handed combat. The fight- 
ing was done at close range. Each man sheltered himself be- 
hind a stump, a rock or a tree trunk. The Indians fully ex- 
pected to gain the victory, but the frontiersmen under Andrew 
Lewis were too valiant for their enemy. When the savages 
began to waver, the voice of Cornstalk could be heard above 
the din of battle calling to his warriors: "Be strong! Be 
strong!" After a desperate resistance the Indians broke and 
fled. The victory was decisive, but an expensive one. "The 
loss of the Virginians was heavy. Two colonels, seven cap- 
tains, three lieutenants and seventy-five men were killed, and 
one hundred and forty wounded. Out of every five men one 
was dead or wounded." The Indians lost even more heavily, 
and were never again able to meet the Virginians on the east 
side of the Ohio in open battle. 

We are not to suppose, however, that there were not In- 
dian raids from time to time. These occurred frequently, 
and every pioneer barred his doors at night and kept his gun 
at the head of his bed as he slept, not knowing at what time 
the Indians might attack. The women, as well as the men, 
often engaged in warfare against the Indians. Such a woman 
was "Mad Ann," of Alleghany county, the wife of John Bailey, 
a soldier killed at the battle of Point Pleasant. She went 
about dressed in a woman's skirt and a man's coat, a rifle on 



3 i2 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

her shoulder and a tomahawk and butcher knife in her belt. 
She could climb the steepest mountain, whether it was severe 
winter or hot summer. She often left home and no one knew 
her whereabouts, and when she returned she always brought 
the scalps of some Indians. Sometimes she engaged in hand- 
to-hand fights with the Indians. She lived to be a very old 
woman, and died in 1825, almost within the memory of our 
fathers. Her story is but an indication of the rough pioneer 
life before and after the time of the Revolution. With the 
battle of Point Pleasant open warfare with the Indians was 
at an end, but the settlers, like "Mad Ann," often had to hunt 
their enemy as they would hunt wolves. 

It is wonderful to recall how quickly the population moved 
westward in Virginia. In 1710, as far as we know, there was 
not a white settler beyond the Blue Ridge, and yet in sixty- 
five years more than one-third of the white population of Vir- 
ginia was beyond the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies, and 
some settlers had pushed as far to the west as the Mississippi 
River, occupying the frontier counties of Kentucky and Illi- 
nois. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 

As has been related in the previous chapter, from 1730 
•on the population of Virginia was moving gradually westward. 
In the year 1749 a company was organized, known as the Ohio 
Company, for the purpose of encouraging westward immigra- 
tion and for carrying on trade among the Indians. Of this 
company Lawrence and Augustine, brothers of George Wash- 
ington, were active and conspicuous members. The com- 
pany was composed of thirteen prominent Virginians and 
Marylanders, with one London merchant. The plans of the 
company were immediately elaborated with reference to the 
two main objects of speculation in western lands and of carry- 
ing on an extensive trade with the western Indians. The 
company obtained from the crown a grant of five hundred 
thousand acres of land in the Ohio Valley, located mainly be- 
tween the Monongahela and Kanawha Rivers. Immediately 
on obtaining this grant immense shipments of goods were 
ordered from London for the Indian trade. 

In 1750 the company sent Christopher Gist, a well-known 
woodsman and trader living on the Yadkin River, down on 
the northern side of the Ohio River, with instructions to ex- 
plore the western country as far as the falls of the Ohio, to 
find and locate a tract of level land, to discover passes in the 
mountains, to follow the course of the rivers and ascertain the 
strength of the Indian nations. Under these instructions Gist 
get out upon his journey and made the first exploration of 

313 



5H COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Southern Ohio of which there is any account. The next 
year, with a similar purpose in view, he explored the country 
on the southern side of the Ohio, going as far as the Great 
Kanawha. The reports which he made of his explorations 
added to the increasing interest in the western country. At 
this time it was evident that more than one colony was hoping 
to obtain titles to these western lands, and many efforts were 
made to secure treaties with the Indians. In 1744 deputies 
from the Iroquois, at Lancaster, Pa., made to Virginia a deed 
that covered the whole west as effectually as the Virginia 
interpretation of the charter of 1609. This treaty was con- 
sidered of very great importance because it is the starting 
point of all subsequent negotiations with the Indians. It was 
this treaty that gave the English their first real hold upon the 
West, and as Mr. Hinsdale says in "The Old Northwest," 
"It stands in all the statements of the English claims to the 
western country side by side with the Cabot voyages.'* 5 

In 1752 Governor Dinwiddie effected a treaty with all the 
western Indians, at Logstown, on the Ohio River, in which it 
was agreed that no settlement south of the Ohio River would 
be molested by the Indians. 

This rapid movement to the west was followed by a war 
with the Indians, which resulted in their defeat in the battle 
of Point Pleasant, in 1744. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to tell of the western move- 
ment which resulted in Clark's conquest of the Northwest. 
It must be remembered that contemporaneous with this west- 
ern movement was the agitation that produced the Revolu- 
tionary War, and this story will have to do with incidents 
that were somewhat removed from the main field and centre 
of Revolutionary activities. 

In the year 1769, the year that Boone first went to Ken- 
tucky, the first permanent settlement was made upon the 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 315 

banks of the Watauga. These were settlers who had come 
out of Virginia and North Carolina, and were of the stock of 
Pennsylvanians who had previously gone to Western Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina. They were a robust race, enter- 
prising and intelligent and adventurous. They were the de- 
scendants of the Irish Calvinists, and were strongly of the 
Presbyterian persuasion. Into their new settlement they were 
followed by brave preachers of their faith, who divided with 
them the dangers and toils incident to frontier life. This 
settlement seemed at first to be but an enlargement of the 
Virginia settlement, and the settlers thought themselves still 
in the domain of Virginia. But in 1771 a surveyor ran put 
the Virginia boundary line to the westward and discovered 
that the Watauga settlement came within the limits of North 
Carolina. Discovering that they were not under the do- 
minion of Virginia and that their rights against the Indians 
were not guaranteed by the Virginia Governor, they were 
thrown back on their own resources and were forced to 
organize for themselves a civil government. 

As the result of the troubles between the royal Governor 
of North Carolina and certain men who called themselves 
regulators, many people from the counties of North Carolina 
were forced over the mountains and became settlers on the 
Watauga and the upper Holston. These settlers at Watauga 
proved to be the founders of the Commonwealth of Tennessee. 
In 1772 it seemed to them necessary that some sort of gov- 
ernment should be organized. Among these settlers at Wa- 
tauga were two men distinguished for their pre-eminent abil- 
ity. They were John Sevier and James Robinson. Robinson 
became the leader in the effort to establish a commonwealth 
of their own. They adopted written articles, which were 
known afterwards as "The Articles of the Watauga Associa- 
tion," and thev formed a written Constitution. It is said that 



3 i6 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

"these were the first men of American birth to establish a 
free and independent community on the continent." 

In this same year, 1769, Daniel Boone was exploring the 
valley of the Holston and Clinch Rivers, and entered the 
present State of Kentucky and reached the valley of the Ken- 
tucky River. 

Boone was bor n in Pennsylvania in 1735. He enjoyed 
small advantages in the way of schooling, but early in life 
learned to shoot and explore the forests with a skill equal to 
that of an Indian. In 1752 he went with this father to live 
in the Yadkin Valley, and from this region he began to make 
trips of exploration into the wild West. Adventure was his 
ruling passion, but for other reasons he desired to move into 
the western region. He was an exceedingly plain man, and 
he was thoroughly satisfied with his log cabin and his deer- 
skin clothes. At thTs time the English Governor of North 
Carolina was putting on great airs, and had introduced the 
fashionable ways of living which were in vogue in England. 
In order to support the extravagances of their stylish Gov- 
ernor, the people were being grievously taxed. Boone's sim- 
ple life rebelled against these conditions, and he determined 
to explore Kentucky with a view of taking his family into 
that great wilderness and establishing a home there. 

In 1769, with five companions, he set out upon his long 
journey of exploration. They wore hunting shirts and trous- 
ers made of deerskin. Their undergarments were of coarse 
cotton, and around their bodies were leather belts. Each one 
carried a tomahawk on his right side, and a hunting-knife, 
powder-horn and bullet-pouch on his left. Over all this lesser 
accoutrement each man bore upon his shoulder his long and 
trusty rifle. 

The weather was stormy and the way through the tangled 
forests was hard and trying. Their garments became soiled 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 317 

and torn, and had they been less robust they would have died 
from fatigue. After six months, during which time they ex- 
plored much of Eastern Kentucky, they were suddenly sur- 
prised by Indians and taken prisoners. Boone had a thor- 
oughly good understanding of Indian character. He knew 
that the best way to win the favor of the Indians was to ap- 
pear satisfied ; so he pretended to be greatly interested in 
whatever they did, and held himself ready always to give them 
any assistance in his power. The Indians were thrown off 
their guard and were less vigilant in their care of their pris- 
oners. One night, while the savages were fast asleep, Boone 
quietly got up, whispered to one of his companions named 
Stewart, and the two made good their escape. They ran aim- 
lessly through the wilderness, but when the Indians awoke 
they were far beyond their reach. They wandered through 
the woods for days, hoping to avoid the Indians and trusting 
somehow to find their way back to North Carolina. In their 
wanderings they discovered one day the forms of two men. 
Not doubting that they were Indians, they grasped their rifles 
immediately to fire upon them, but before doing so Boone 
cried out, "Hello, strangers, whp are you?" and greatly to 
their relief and delight the answer came back, "White men, 
and friends." Boone's delight was further enhanced when he 
found that one of the men was his own brother, who had come 
from North Carolina searching for them. Boone and his com- 
panion returned to North Carolina, but he was not contented 
to live there. So in 1773 he set out again for Kentucky, this 
time carrying with him his family. Their beds, clothes and 
provisions were strapped on packhorses, while they drove 
their cattle before them. On their journey they were met by 
five other families, making altogether a party of forty. They 
had scarcely reached the borders of Kentucky before they 
were attacked by a party of Indians. In the battle which fol- 



318 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

lowed six of the men with Boone were killed, one of them 
being - his eldest son, James, a lad of seventeen. Boone was 
so distressed by this calamity and bereavement that he turned 
back and settled on the Clinch River, which flows out of Vir- 
ginia into Tennessee. While he was here a messenger came 
from Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, asking him to enter the 
service of Virginia. He accepted the appointment, and was 
made captain of a company in the army of General Andrew 
Lewis. These troops were led by Lewis across the Allegha- 
nies, and in an engagement at. Point Pleasant, where the Ohio 
and the Kanawha Rivers join, the Indians were defeated. 
Boone then returned to his family, and in 1775 entered into 
the region of Kentucky and built the town of Boonesborough. 
He declared that his wife and daughters were the first white 
women that ever stood on the banks of the Kentucky River. 
Soon other families followed and the settlement grew rapidly. 
Many settlers came from Virginia, and among them was 
George Rogers Clark, of whom we shall hear more presently. 

Hardly had Boone left Kentucky when the news came 
that the colonists east of the Alleghanies were at war with 
England. The Indians, inspired by the English in Canada, 
were constantly raiding the settlements of the whites along 
the Ohio River. These early settlers were therefore con- 
stantly subjected to the danger of being surprised and over- 
whelmed by the Indians. Their little towns were built like 
forts, so that they might the n\3re easily and surely defend 
themselves. But in spite of all precautions, most of them 
were captured and killed by the Indians. 

It is hard for us in these latter days, with all the conven- 
iences and facilities of civilization about us, to have any ade- 
quate idea or appreciation of the sufferings incident to the 
life of these great pioneers. Among other things greatly 
needed by these Kentucky settlers was salt. There was a 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 319 

place on the Licking- River where it could be gotten, and 
Boone was sent with thirty men to procure a supply for the 
settlement. While he was engaged in the manufacture of 
■salt he was surprised by the Indians and taken prisoner. They 
carried him across the Ohio River towards the Great Lakes. 
His skill as a marksman soon won for him the admiration of 
the Indians, and Blackfish, a Shawnee chief, adopted him as 
his own son. The adoption was according to the Indian cere- 
monies, which was not without both painful and humorous 
aspects. His hair was pulled out by a slow process, except 
a single tuft on the top of his head, which was dressed up 
with ribbon and feathers. He was next taken to the river and 
thoroughly washed and rubbed in order that his white blood 
might be removed. His face and head were then painted with 
various colors, and the ritual of adoption was consummated 
with a great feast and the usual pipe-smoking. 

While living thus among the Indians, Boone was con- 
stantly hoping and planning to effect an escape. He over- 
heard, on one occasion, that the Indians were planning a raid 
on Boonesborough, and he determined at all hazards to save 
the little town and his family. He managed finally to escape 
the vigilance of the Indians, and after five days of rapid travel- 
ing he reached Boonesborough, having gone more than one 
hundred and sixty miles. During the five days he ate but one 
meal, which was a turkey that he shot after crossing the Ohio 
River. He knew that he would not be safe until he crossed 
the river, for the Indians were in hot pursuit of him. Sure 
enough, after he reached Boonesborough it was attacked by 
the Indians, but Boone had come in time to have the place 
fortified, and the Indians were driven back. Thus by Boone's 
bravery and determination one of the chief settlements of 
Kentucky was saved from destruction. 

Boone's life was a story of exciting adventure, and many 



320 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

interesting- incidents are related of him. On one occasion he 
was in his tobacco house hanging tobacco which was not 
quite dry. He was in the top of the barn when four stout 
Indians with guns entered the door and called out, "Now, 
Boone, we've got you. You no get away more. We carry 
you off this time. You no cheat us any more." Boone looked 
down from his perch and saw four guns aimed at his breast. 
He recognized the Indians as the same who had taken him 
prisoner when he was making salt. He calmly and pleasantly 
replied, "Ah, old friends, glad to see you." He was ordered 
to come down. To this he readily assented, but asked the 
Indians to wait a moment until he had finished moving his 
tobacco, and while discharging this task he inquired of them 
about the Indians whom he had known near the Great Lakes, 
and promised to give them tobacco when it was cured. While 
engaged thus in conversation he was getting together a num- 
ber of sticks of very dry tobacco. Suddenly he threw him- 
self upon the Indians with the dry tobacco, which crumbled 
and filled their mouths and eyes, so blinding them that they 
could not see to shoot as he ran out and hastened to his cabin, 
thus effecting his escape. 

For his valuable services in fighting the Indians, Boone 
received large grants of land, but he neglected to have the 
deeds recorded, and so finally he lost all of his land. When 
he realized that he had forfeited these lands in Kentucky by 
his neglect, he decided to go further into the wild West, which 
embraced in those days all of the territory west of the Mis- 
sissippi River, known as Louisiana. Boone had heard of the 
marvelous fertility of Louisiana, so in 1795 he crossed over 
the Mississippi River and found a home in what is now the 
State of Missouri, not very far away from St. Louis. At that 
time all of that vast region was under the control of Spain. 
The Spanish government hearing of Boone's prowess and 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 321 

bravery, made him commandant of St. Louis, and granted him 
nine thousand acres of land on the Missouri River. In a few 
years Louisiana was transferred by Spain to the French, from 
whom the United States bought it in 1803. 

Boone's family soon followed him, together with many 
other American settlers. Once again Boone's failure to ob- 
serve legal proprieties and requirements in the small matter 
of having deeds recorded lost him all the lands that had been 
granted in Louisiana. He was now an old man. He had 
wandered through the wilderness of Kentucky, crossed the 
Mississippi and was probably about the first citizen of the 
United States to settle on the Missouri River. He had left 
Kentucky owing debts, and, being an honest man, he was 
greatly disturbed in his desire to liquidate them. With this 
intention he returned to his old occupation of hunting, and 
in one winter was so successful that he was able to return to 
Kentucky and fully pay all of his obligations, returning to 
St. Louis with only fifty cents in his pockets. To some friend 
he remarked : "Now I am ready and willing to die. I am re- 
lieved from the burden which has so long oppressed me. I 
have paid all of my debts, and no one will say when I am 
gone, Boone was a dishonest man. I am perfectly willing to 
die." 

A little later he asked the Legislature of Kentucky to re- 
store to him his lands and to appeal to Congress in his favor. 
The Kentucky Legislature at once presented his claim to Con- 
gress, and in 1814 Congress passed an act giving Boone about 
one thousand acres of land in Missouri. Boone was then 
seventy-nine years old, but his mind was still alert and vig- 
orous. He lived six years longer, during which time Missouri 
had grown rapidly, and when he died, in 1820, that Territory 
was knocking for admission as a State into the Union. 

The Western States can never forget Boone. He blazed 



322 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

the way through the wilderness into Kentucky and across the 
Mississippi into the far West. 

Boone was honest, unselfish, wise and courageous. He 
was devoted to his family, especially to his children and his 
grandchildren. It is said that he had no greater pleasure in 
his old age than to make for his grandchildren powder-horns 
and to teach them how to handle the rifle. Twenty-five years 
after his death his remains were taken from the banks of the 
Missouri and brought to Frankfort, Ky., where they were re- 
interred with befitting and imposing ceremonies. There were 
representatives from every county in Kentucky, and many 
people from the West came together to honor the pioneer of 
the great Mississippi Valley. 

Many Virginians who were attracted by the story of 
Boone's adventures and by the reports concerning the beauty 
and fertility of the western country were soon following the 
great pioneer into Kentucky. Among these was George Rog- 
ers Clark. He was born in Albemarle county, Virginia, in 
1752, not far from the birthplace of Thomas Jefferson. In 
after years there sprang up a strong friendship between these 
two, though there is no evidence to show that this friendship 
began in their boyhood days. His early years were spent in 
Caroline county, Virginia, and he went to school to Mr. Don- 
ald Robinson, and was a playmate and friend of James Madi- 
son, who afterwards became President of the United States. 
Following the example of Washington and other eminent 
men, he became a surveyor, and in a few years took up for 
himself a tract of land about twenty-five miles from where 
Wheeling, West Virginia, now stands. When Dunmore took 
the field against the Indians in the Northwest, Clark joined 
him. He was not, however, at the battle of Point Pleasant, 
because Lord Dunmore, under whose immediate command he 
was, failed to join General Andrew Lewis at the time and 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 323 

place agreed upon. In 1775 he took up his residence in Ken- 
tucky, and became interested at once in all schemes that 
looked for the protection of the people against the savages 
and for the general improvement of the country. 

Soon the question of the relation of Kentucky to Virginia 
was being agitated, and there was a general desire that the 
question might be determined, and, if possible, in favor of an 
organic connection with Virginia. A meeting was called, at 
which it was determined to send two delegates to the Vir- 
ginia Legislature. For some reason Clark failed to put in his 
appearance at this meeting until after this action had been 
taken. His idea was that they should send two agents to 
Williamsburg with power to act in any way that they might 
deem wise after the situation had been gone over at Williams- 
burg. He, however, readily acquiesced in the action of the 
meeting, and soon, with John Gabriel Jones, the other dele- 
gate, set out upon the long journey through the wilderness 
to Williamsburg. This journey was not taken by the water 
route, but over what was known as the wilderness road, which, 
it is presumed, was no road at all. It was a wet season, and 
the travel was made exceedingly difficult and disagreeable. 
They were constantly threatened by an attack by the Indians. 
Clark lost his horse on the way and had to walk. He said 
afterwards that he "suffered more torment than he had ever 
done before or since." They were disappointed in not finding 
people at Martin's Fort, near Cumberland Gap, as they had con- 
fidently hoped, but they were so exhausted that they took up 
a brief residence in the abandoned quarters and recuperated, 
and prepared for the rest of the journey. 

On their arrival at Williamsburg they found the Legisla- 
ture already adjourned. He tells in his diary that he settled 
with the auditor and drew £726 from the treasurer. He 
relates that he bought cloth for a jacket, paying £4, 15s. for 



324 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

it, with an added 3s. for buttons. He also relates that he 
bought a lottery ticket at the cost of £3, in the State lottery, 
No. 10693, first-class. He further relates that he went to 
church on the 9th inst. 

Jones went back to the settlement on the Holston to await 
the meeting of the next Legislature, but Clark remained at 
Williamsburg, desiring earnestly to have a conference with 
Governor Patrick Henry. Governor Henry was sick at this 
time at his home in Hanover, but was so interested in Clark 
and his schemes that he cheerfully granted him a hearing, 
and recommended that the Council give to Clark, for use in 
the Northwest, five hundred pounds of gunpowder. The 
Council was reluctant to grant the request, but finally did so 
on the condition that Clark would pay the freight for its trans- 
portation to Kentucky and give personal bond that he would 
return the cost of the powder to the Council in case the Leg- 
islature should refuse to indorse their action. Clark was very 
much chagrined at the conditions named, and was sorely 
tempted to promptly decline to assume any further responsi- 
bility in the matter. He concluded, however, to have further 
argument with the Council, and told them that if Kentucky 
was a part of Virginia, Virginia certainly owed protection to 
it ; that if it was not worth protecting, it was not worth hav- 
ing, and then he adroitly insinuated that if this request should 
be declined, they would be compelled to look to other quar- 
ters for their assistance, which, he doubted not, would be 
speedily and gladly furnished him. The Council yielded to the 
argument of Clark, and ordered that five hundred pounds of 
gunpowder be forthwith sent to Pittsburg, and there held sub- 
ject to the orders of George Rogers Clark for the use of the 
inhabitants of Kentucky. Clark was, of course, greatly grati- 
fied at this issue, not simply that it obtained for him the five 
hundred pounds of gunpowder, but the grant seemed to in- 
volve the recognition of Kentucky as a part of Virginia. 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 325 

He remained at Williamsburg- until the fall, when the Leg- 
islature met again. Mr. Jones returned from the Holston set- 
tlement, likewise, in time for the meeting of the Legislature. 
They were at first not admitted as full members, but were 
permitted very close relations with the Legislature, and there 
is unmistakable evidence that they had great influence with 
the body. By their influence the Legislature formally recog- 
nized Kentucky as a part of Virginia, under the county of 
Kentucky, with its present boundaries as a State. 

After the close of the Legislature, Clark and Jones returned 
to Kentucky. On their arrival at Pittsburg they found that 
the gunpowder was still there, not having been forwarded to 
Kentucky. They determined that they themselves would un- 
dertake the delivery of the gunpowder. They, therefore, took 
the river route, which was exceedingly dangerous, because 
both banks of the river were frequented by Indians. They 
reached Maysville, Kentucky, but were afraid to undertake to 
carry the powder inland, so hid it in several places along the 
river, Clark hurrying into the interior to organize a military 
force from Harrisburg to convey the powder to its destina- 
tion. While he was gone on this mission, a Colonel John 
Todd arrived with a small force and attempted to convey the 
powder with only a small escort of ten men. They were no 
sooner well on their way when they were violently attacked 
by the Indians and were routed. Among the killed was John 
Gabriel Jones, almost on the threshold of his own home, to 
which he was returning after his long absence in Virginia. 

Upon the tidings of the defeat of the Todd party, a com- 
pany of thirty was raised, who succeeded in finding the pow- 
der and delivering it finally in good order. 

Clark remained in Kentucky until October, 1777, all the 
time projecting and perfecting schemes for the protection of 
the people, and brooding in the meantime over the possibilities 
and desirability of capturing the Northwest from England. He 



326 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

sought all possible information, sent spies throughout the 
Northwest to report on the number of English posts and to 
ascertain the sentiment of the people with regard to an alli- 
ance with Americans rather than with the English. When 
he had secured all necessary information he again went to 
Williamsburg, where, in December, 1777, he laid the matter 
that was on his heart before Governor Patrick Henry. Gov- 
ernor Henry hesitated, but appreciated the importance and 
comprehensiveness of Clark's great scheme. Indeed, so im- 
portant did he esteem it to be, that he called for a conference 
on the subject with such men as Thomas Jefferson, George 
Wythe and George Mason. After this conference he called 
together the Council, which was composed of His Excellency, 
John Page, Dudley Diggs, John Blair, Nathaniel Harris and 
David Jameson. The Governor related to the Council the 
purpose and details of the scheme, and recommended earnestly 
that they take action in the matter. He informed them that 
Kaskaskia was held by the British, with cannon and other 
valuable stores, and occupied at the present time by a very 
weak garrison. The Council, after some debate, voted £1,200 
to be given to George Rogers Clark to organize his expedi- 
tion. The action was taken under the warrant of the law 
passed by the General Assembly authorizing the Governor 
and Council to take all necessary means for the protection 
of the colonists. Colonel George Rogers Clark was author- 
ized to organize seven companies. They were to go to Ken- 
tucky and obey such orders as Clark should impose upon 
them. He was also empowered to raise these men in any 
county in the Commonwealth. The members of the Council 
advising the movement agreed to recommend that each sol- 
dier, in addition to the usual pay, should receive a land grant 
of three hundred acres. Clark got together a force of one 
hundred and fifty men, which he concentrated on Corn Island, 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 327 

at the falls of the Ohio River. Staying here long enough to 
build suitable boats for transportation, he embarked and went 
down the Ohio River as far as Fort Masce, whence he 
made his march to Kaskaskia, which was held by a small gar- 
rison of English troops. He occupied the place without being 
detected, walked into the fort and stood in the doorway of the 
hall and watched the dancing. The English did not see him, 
but an Indian who was present noticed the stranger and raised 
a war-whoop. Colonel Clark quietly quelled the disturbance, 
and informed the gentlemen that they could proceed with 
their dance, though they were now prisoners in the hands of 
the Virginians. He then went to the home of the commander, 
Rochblave, whom he captured in bed. There were some im- 
portant papers in the house which Colonel Clark was very 
anxious to secure, but unfortunately these were stored in 
Madam Rochblave's room, and his gallantry and respect for 
the ladies were so great that rather than invade the privacy 
of the lady's chamber, he permitted her to burn the papers 
without being disturbed. 

Kaskaskia was the most important town of the Northwest 
for a long number of years. It was the capital of the Illinois 
country during the dominion of France, England and Virginia. 
It was the leading town of the Northwest from the time of 
its organization up to 1800, and of the Indiana territory until 
1809. At the time of its capture by Clark it was occupied by 
several hundred families. 

After the capture of Kaskaskia, Clark set out to take pos- 
session of Vincennes. He found no difficulty in receiving 
the capitulation of the town, for its inhabitants were French 
and were only too glad to transfer their allegiance from the 
flag of England to that of Virginia. The English had a large 
force in Detroit, under the command of Governor Hamilton, 
who, on hearing of the occupancy of Illinois by Colonel Clark, 



328 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

determined, if possible, to dispossess him and to continue to 
hold the Northwest for the English. He, therefore, moved 
with a large force to the south and recaptured Vincennes. 
There had been left in Vincennes only a very small garrison 
of Virginians, whose commander understood very well that 
they could not resist an attack from Hamilton, and so asked 
for a conference, and when he was informed that he might 
retire with the honors of war, he gladly did so, greatly amaz- 
ing General Hamilton at the fewness of his men. 

When Clark heard that Vincennes had again fallen into 
the hands of the English, he determined to get together his 
troops again and to capture Hamilton and his forces or to 
drive them from the Northwestern land. In the middle of 
winter, 1779, Clark left Kaskaskia to attack Vincennes. His 
march was a bold undertaking, and covered a distance of one 
hundred and sixty miles through the drowned lands of the 
Wabash River. Often the soldiers had to go through water 
up to their waists, and sometimes even to their necks, but 
Clark was dauntless and his men were brave, so they pushed 
on with determination. Toward the end of the march Clark 
found the water so deep and his men were so exhausted from 
cold and hunger that he feared to make known to them the 
real situation. He then put some water in his hands, poured 
on powder, blackened his face, gave the war-whoop and 
marched into the water without saying a word. He ordered his 
men to begin a favorite song, and the whole force joining in, 
marched cheerfully into the water. After sixteen days of great 
perseverance and hardships, Clark reached Vincennes. His 
appearance before them was a surprise, as Hamilton had never 
dreamed that any man would dare to march from Kaskaskia 
to Vincennes through the drowned lands of the Wabash River. 
Clark ordered him to surrender, which he at first declined to 
do, but that night Clark made such a vigorous attack on the 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 329 

fort that the next day Hamilton thought it wise to surrender. 
Clark sent a boat up the Wabash River, captured forty pris- 
oners and $50,000 worth of goods and stores. Hamilton and 
some of the officers and privates were sent as prisoners to Wil- 
liamsburg. 

Not only did Clark drive the English from the Northwest, 
but he also subdued the Indians in that region. It is related 
that he met them in many conferences, and always succeeded 
in impressing and over-awing them. At one meeting he had 
only seventy men, while the Indians had three hundred. The 
Indian chief, believing that he was stronger than Clark, placed 
upon a table at which Clark was seated a belt of white and 
black wampum, signifying that Clark could take either peace 
or war. Taking this as an insult, Clark threw the wampum 
upon the floor, trampled on it, and dismissed the Indians from 
the hall. This courageous act, which meant nothing else than 
war, so unnerved the Indians that they at once began to fear 
Clark, and the next day they sued for peace. 

Having thus overcome the English and subdued the In- 
dians into a treaty, Clark had now absolute control of the 
Northwestern territory. Virginia was greatly delighted with 
Clark's splendid achievements. The Legislature passed a 
vote of thanks and presented him with a sword, on the scab- 
bard of which were the words, "Sic semper tyrannis x " and on 
the blade, "A tribute to the courage and patriotism, presented 
by the State of Virginia to her beloved son, General George 
Rogers Clark, who, by the conquest of Illinois and Vincennes, 
extended her empire and aided in the defense of her liberties." 
For their services in the war Virginia granted to Clark and 
his soldiers one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land in 
what is now the State of Indiana. Of this grant Clark received 
for his part eight thousand acres, and each private received 
one hundred and eight acres. 



330 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

In October, 1778, the Virginia Legislature took the fol- 
lowing action : "All citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia 
who are actually settlers there, or who shall hereafter be set- 
tled on the west side of the Ohio, shall be included in the 
district of Kentucky, which shall be called Illinois county/' 
And in keeping with this action Governor Henry appointed a 
lieutenant-commandant for the new county, with full author- 
ity to administer government. 

Thus it was in 1779 Illinois became a county in the State 
of Virginia. The various States which had entered into the 
Union became unwilling to see Virginia hold so much terri- 
tory. Maryland finally refused to ratify the Articles of Con- 
federation unless all of this western territory was ceded to 
the Union. This Virginia magnanimously did by act of her 
Legislature in 1782. Other States, Connecticut and Massa- 
chusetts notably, claimed a part of the Northwestern territory. 
There can be no doubt, however, but that Virginia's claims 
were the more reasonable ; first, her charter of 1609, and sec- 
ond, by conquest, "her troops sent out by Virginia, under 
George Rogers Clark." Mr. Hinsdale, in his "Old Northwest," 
truly says : "The Northwest had been won by a Virginia 
army, commanded by a Virginia officer, put in the field at 
Virginia's expense." 

In the State Library of Virginia are a great number of 
manuscripts known as •The George Rogers Clark Papers," 
which show with what great difficulty Virginia supplied her 
troops in the Northwest, being compelled to find provisions 
even from so great a distance as New Orleans. Clark often 
complained that he did not receive sufficient supplies. The 
men were forced frequently to go without shoes and clothes, 
and often their rations were only a gill of whiskey, a pound 
of beef and a pound of flour a day. 

Sufficient credit is not always given to Clark and to Vir- 



THE SETTLERS OF THE FRONTIER. 331 

ginia for the Northwest territory. If Clark had not conquered 
this territory it would have remained in the hands of the Eng- 
lish until the close of the Revolutionary War. By the treaty 
of peace with England which acknowledged the independence 
of the United States, it was agreed that England and the 
United States should each retain what territory they held at 
the time of the close of the war. By this treaty Canada, which 
was never conquered by the United States, was kept by Eng- 
land; but since Clark had conquered the Northwest territory, 
this remained in the hands of the United States. So it was 
through the, boldness and wisdom of George Rogers Clark 
that we now have in our nation those "five magnificent States 
of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. When 
we recall how much territory Virginia has given to the Union, 
and how many men she furnished in the Revolutionary period 
and in the early period of the Union that shaped the affairs of 
state, it is easy to see how reasonable is the claim made for 
her that she is the mother of States and of statesmen. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
PATRICK HENRY, VIRGINIA'S GREAT COMMONER 

We are now to return from our excursions westward to the 
stirring scenes associated with the bringing about of the great 
Revolutionary struggle. Perhaps as around no other person 
the incidents going immediately before the Declaration of In- 
dependence gather about the person and speech of Patrick 
Henry. He seems to have been raised up to be the prophet of 
the Revolution and the mouthpiece and exponent of those 
great dynamic principles which inspired the great struggle for 
liberty and crowned it with splendid .success. 

Between the earlier and later biographers of Mr. Henry 
there are many discrepancies, and consequently much confu- 
sion as to some of the facts of his life. He seems to have been 
of Scotch ancestry on his father's side. He was born at Stud- 
ley, Hanover county, Va., May 29, 1736. This was the home 
of his mother, who was the widow of Colonel Symm at the 
time of her marriage to Colonel Henry. It will be remem- 
bered that it was of a visit to her home while on a tour of in- 
spection of his estates that Colonel Byrd makes mention in the 
"Westover Manuscripts." At that time she was a hospitable 
and prepossessing widow. Her maiden name was Sarah Wins- 
ton, a family of Welsh extraction, favorably known in many 
descendants throughout Virginia even to this day. 

His father, Colonel Henry, was a native of Dundee, Scot- 
land. He seems to have been a man of good culture and of 
fine standing in the community. He was a regimental com- 

332 



PATRICK HENRY. 333 

mander, president of a magisterial court, and held the office 
of county surveyor, which in those days was an important 
and prominent position, for many years. 

Mr. Henry was thoroughly well born, and on both sides 
of his family there was a lineage of which he might well be 
proud. He went to the neighborhood schools until he was ten 
years old, after which time he was taught by his father and an 
uncle who was a minister. The general impression that Pat- 
rick Henry was an uneducated man seems to be somewhat 
wide of the mark. He himself, doubtless, was largely respon- 
sible for this impression, as he took no pains to parade any 
knowledge he might have ; but, on the other hand, seemed for 
some reason disposed, by his speech and conduct, to encourage 
the idea that he was a man without education and training. 
The facts of the case, however, when thoroughly sifted, go to 
prove that while Mr. Henry could not in any broad sense be 
called a scholar, he was not without an education very far 
above the average received by the youth of his time. The 
fact that his pronunciation was wretched is not sufficient to 
stamp him as an uneducated man. It is said that Jefferson 
told Daniel Webster that Patrick Henry's pronunciation was 
vulgar and vicious. Governor John Page used to relate, "on the 
testimony of his own ears," that Patrick Henry would speak 
of "the yearth and of men's naiteral parts as being improved 
by laming." Many cultivated men are open to the charge of 
ignorance if Mr. Henry is to be convicted on the above state- 
ments. There is room for belief that Mr. Henry, for reasons 
of expediency, encouraged the idea that he was not an edu- 
cated man. He evidently thought that such an impression 
would the more closely identity him with the mass of people. 
There is proof that he received a good classical training at the 
hands of his father and of his uncle up to the age of fifteen 
years, and that his attainments in mathematics were not mean. 



334 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

Colonel Fontaine has an anecdote concerning a certain French- 
man who visited his grandfather's house while he was Gov- 
ernor. The French visitor was not able to speak English, and 
his grandfather not being able to speak French, they selected 
the Latin language as a medium of communication. If this 
story be true, there can be no doubt but that Mr. Henry's 
knowledge of Latin was far beyond that usually possessed 
even by educated men. 

His manner of speech and method of writing, both in his 
private correspondence and in official documents, prove be- 
yond any sort of doubt that Mr. Henry was a man of good 
intelligence, cultivation and attainments. It is said that he 
was very fond both of the Bible and of "Butler's Analogy." 
It would be quite impossible for one to be familiar with either 
of these books in any real and enthusiastic way and not be 
thoroughly competent to write and speak good English. 

At the age of fifteen he was put to clerk in a country 
store, a career upon which he entered with small taste and 
enthusiasm. After a short apprenticeship his father set him 
and his younger brother up in business on their own account. 
It seems that his brother was as little qualified for the career 
of a business man as Patrick himself was. The venture soon 
proved to be a failure. Just after this experience in bank- 
ruptcy, when he had attained the age of eighteen, he added to 
the embarrassment of this distressing situation by marrying. 
The name of the brave woman who was willing to share his 
lot of poverty, and who was said to be quite as impecunious as 
he was, was Sarah Shelton. The situation seemed to call for 
help from both sides of the family, so accordingly the parents 
of both parties united in settling the young couple upon a 
small farm. The experiment at farming was as uisastroujs as 
the business venture, and after two years there was a forced 
sale of whatever remained on the farm. Patrick concluded 



PATRICK HENRY. 335 

that perhaps with the added experience of the years at farm- 
ing 1 , a business venture might prove more successful, and he 
resolved to again open up a country store. A third failure 
followed quickly upon the heels of the others. 

If one imagines that during all these distressing years Pat- 
rick was himself greatly distressed or disturbed, one is much 
mistaken. It seems that he was possessed of a most perennial 
good nature, which absolutely refused to be discouraged, and 
could find no situation but that out of it some sort of pleasure 
or satisfaction might be had. However serious the situation 
might seem to others, Patrick never really seemed to be 
gravely impressed. At the- age of twenty-three he was the 
father of a group of small children, looking to him for daily 
bread and support, and there was absolutely no visible means 
of a livelihood, and he was thrown back upon his wife's father, 
who kept an inn at Hanover Courthouse, for shelter and /sup- 
port. 

It is said that his first awakening to consciousness of ca- 
pacity and to anything like real ambition is due to the preach- 
ing of two ministers of the gospel, one of whom, James Wad- 
dell, was a blind preacher, and seems to have been able to 
exercise wonderful influence over great congregations by his 
eloquence. The other was Samuel Davies, an eminent Pres- 
byterian minister, of whom Patrick Henry said he was the 
greatest orator that he had ever heard. Under the witchery 
of the eloquence of these two men he seems really to have 
found himself. There was that in him which responded to 
the call for expression aroused in him by the preaching of 
these two ministers, and for the first time in his life he formed 
something like a real resolution. 

He determined that he would enter at once upon the pre- 
paration for the practice of law. It would be intereeting to 
trace through Mr. Henry's ancestry on both sides of the 



336 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

parental house the lines of heredity that would account for his 
ambition in this respect, and largely for the splendid success 
realized afterwards in his career. If the accounts are true, 
he was not by any means the first competent lawyer or suc- 
cessful politician or eloquent speaker in his family. The truth 
is that up to this time there never had been any appeal made 
to the man's essential nature, and there was no stir in his life 
until he felt this call. 

The stories concerning his preparation for admission 
to the bar are somewhat confusing, both as to the length of 
time taken in this preparation and as to the way in which he 
was admitted to the practice of law. One story says that he 
gave only a very few weeks of study, a month or six weeks, in 
the preparation for admission ; another extends the limit to 
nine months. However this may be, there can be no doubt but 
that it was with some difficulty that he procured a license. 
No one knows precisely what conditions were exacted upon 
which the license was granted. It is said that there were 
four examiners, Wythe, Pendleton, Peyton Randolph and John 
Randolph. Wythe and Pendleton, Mr. Jefferson says, at once 
rejected his application. The two Randolphs were, by his 
importunity, prevailed upon to sign the license, and having 
obtained their signatures, he again applied to Pendleton, and 
after much entreaty and many promises of future study, suc- 
ceeded also in obtaining his signature. At any rate he ob- 
tained his license and began at once to establish himself in his 
profession. This seems to have been done much more 
promptly and effectually than many records allow. For mis- 
information and misunderstanding of Mr. Henry's career as 
a lawyer, Thomas Jefferson is supposed to be largely respon- 
sible. Fortunately, in more recent years certain documents 
have been brought to light which prove that Mr. Henry was 
an unusually successful lawyer from the beginning, and that 



PATRICK HENRY. 337 

many of the impressions hitherto had concerning his capac- 
ity and fitness for the practice of law were entirely erroneous. 
Mr. Henry's own fee-book, containing a record of the number 
of suits in which he was employed for the first three years 
of his professional career, has been found, in which it is indi- 
cated that in that time he was engaged in as many as eleven 
hundred and eighty-five law suits. Furthermore, these docu- 
ments show that these suits were in the general practice of law, 
and not in the main in criminal cases, as is commonly sup- 
posed. It was just this sort of practice that required the pos- 
session of certain qualities and attributes denied to Mr. Henry 
by the general impression. Mr. Moses Coit Tyler institutes a 
comparison between the accounts of the first several years of 
Mr. Henry's practice and that of Mr. Jefferson, in which it is 
indicated very clearly that Mr. Henry's practice for the same 
time was nearly double that of Mr. Jefferson. Instead of being 
dependent for these several years upon the bounty of his 
father-in-law, there is a record of his having advanced to his 
father-in law a considerable sum of money. At the beginning, 
however, such was his general reputation and his manner of 
dress and speech that it would have taken a very sanguine 
prophet to predict for him in the practice of law anything but 
speedy distress and failure. 

His first appearance in the courthouse was in the cele- 
brated suit known as "The Parsons' Case." It will be remem- 
bered that this was a suit brought by a minister of the Church 
of England to recover his salary. The salaries of the clergy 
were to be paid in tobacco at the rate of sixteen thousand 
pounds per year. On account of the great scarcity of tobacco 
there had been a large advance in its price. The Virginia As- 
sembly passed an act making all debts payable in tobacco to 
be paid in money at the rate of only twopence per pound. 
An appeal was made to the King concerning the legality of 



338 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

this enactment, who promptly decided against it. The clergy- 
men were thus clearly entitled either to the tobacco or to its 
market price. Mr. Maury, the minister at Hanover, brought 
suit to recover his salary. There was no question at all as to 
the law in the case. The King had decided that, and the 
counsel for the defendants had retired from the case. There 
iseems to have been, however, a universal and earnest desire 
that some remarks be offered upon the subject, and Patrick 
Henry was employed to oppose the parsons. It was his first 
appearance as a lawyer in public speech. At first he was em- 
barrassed and awkward in manner, and slow and stammering 
in speech. But in some marvelous way a strange transforma- 
tion took place. He found himself after a few moments in 
the midst of a most eloquent and passionate utterance. He 
denounced the clergy in such bold and scathing terms that 
numbers of them rose up in indignation and left the court- 
hiuse. He spoke after the same fashion concerning the King, 
who had supported the cause of the parsons, and denounced 
him as a tyrant who had forfeited all right to claim obedience. 
Even when the counsel for the plaintiff charged that "the 
gentleman has spoken treason," Henry was by no means 
quelled or subdued. The truth is, he grew bolder and more 
violent. The audience was evidently in thorough and manifest 
sympathy with every extravagant utterance, and when Patrick 
Henry had closed his marvelous tirade of eloquence, the crowd 
was in the wildest excitement and commotion as the jury re- 
tired to discuss the verdict. Only five minutes passed before 
the jury returned with a verdict that fixed the damage for the 
plaintiff at only one penny. The verdict was received with 
loud and vociferous applause. The will of the King had been 
openly defied, and when court adjourned the young orator 
was caught up and carried out on the shoulders of the ex- 
cited crowd. This was the beginning of his career as a lawyer, 



PATRICK HENRY. 339 

and these were the first utterances of the great commoner 
whose bold speech was to fire the colonial heart throughout 
the land to defiance and ultimately to open rebellion. 

Patrick Henry was elected from Louisa county to the 
House of Burgesses in 1765. It wa^s at the time when the 
country was greatly stirred over the act of the English Par- 
liament known as the stamp act. England was greatly em- 
barrassed financially, especially by reason of the debt that 
had been accumulated incident to the war with France. The 
Englishmen claimed that as this war had been mainly in the 
protection of the interest of the American colonies, they 
should bear a part of the expense. By all the precedents 
hitherto clearly understood, both in England and America, 
Virginia could not be taxed except with the consent and au- 
thority of the House of Burgesses. The Englishmen consid- 
eied the conditions extraordinary, and resolved to resort to 
extreme measures. After some procrastination and debate, a 
measure was finally passed providing for a stamp upon all 
documents of a legal nature. This act was received with uni- 
versal dissent and indignation on the part of the colonists, 
and it was in the midst of the excitement growing out of the 
act of the English Parliament that the House of Burgesses 
met in 1765. 

However much the matter may have been discussed in 
private and personal capacities, no one ventured to secure from 
the House of Burgesses any formal or official utterance on 
the subject. Mr. Henry waited until it was within three days 
of the time agreed upon for the adjournment of the House of 
Burgesses. He finally and reluctantly determined that he 
himself would force an expression of opinion from the mem- 
bers of the House of Burgesses. So he prepared and pre- 
sented five resolutions that were seconded by Mr. Johnson. 
Mr. Henry was only twenty-nine years of age and was alto- 



340 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

gether unused to the customs and proprieties of the House of 
Burgesses, and it was not without considerable fear and no 
little awkwardness that he took up the defense of the resolu- 
tions that he had prepared. We give in full the resolutions 
as prepared by Mr. Henry. It is said that they were written 
upon a fly-leaf of a law book called "Coke upon Littleton." 

"Resolved, That the first adventurers and settlers of this 
His Majesty's colony and domain, brought with them and 
transmitted to their posterity and all others of His Majesty's 
subjects since inhabiting this His Majesty's said colony, all 
privileges, franchises and immunities that have at any time 
been here enjoyed and possessed by the people of Great 
Britain. 

"Resolved, That by two royal charters granted by King 
James I., the colonists aforesaid are declared entitled to all 
the privileges, liberties and immunities of denisons and natu- 
ral born subjects to all intents and purposes as if they had 
been abiding and born within the realm of England. 

"Resolved, That the taxation of the people by themselves 
or by persons chosen by themselves to represent them, who 
can only know what taxes the people are able to bear and the 
easiest mode of raising them, and are equally affected by such 
taxes themselves, is the distinguishing characteristic of British 
freedom, and without which the ancient constitution cannot 
exist. 

"Resolved, That His Majesty's liege people of this most 
ancient colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of be- 
ing thus governed by their own Assembly in the article of 
their taxes and internal police, and that the same hath never 
been forfeited or in any other way given up, but hath been 
constantly recognized by the King and the people of Great 
Britain. 

"Resolved, That therefore the General Assembly of this 



PATRICK HENRY. 341 

colony have the sole right and power to levy taxes and imposi- 
tions upon the inhabitants of this colony; and that every at- 
tempt to vest such power in any other person or persons what- 
soever, other than the General Assembly aforesaid, has a man- 
ifest tendency to destroy British as well as American free- 
dom." 

These resolutions were afterwards found among the papers 
of Mr. Henry, on the back of which there was written by Mr. 
Henry the following indorsement : 

"The within resolutions passed the House of Burgesses 
in May, 1765. That from the first opposition to the stamp 
act and the scheme of taxing Americans by the British Par- 
liament, all colonies were through fear or want of opportun- 
ity to form an opposition, or upon influence from some kind 
or other, had remained silent. I had been for the first time 
elected a burgess a few days before ; was young, inexperi- 
enced, unacquainted with the forms of the House and the 
members that composed it. Finding the men of weight averse 
to opposition, and the commencement of the tax at hand, and 
that no person was likely to step forth, I determined to ven- 
ture, and alone, unadvised and unassisted, on a blank leaf of 
an old law book, wrote the within. Upon offering them to 
the House, violent debate ensued, many threats were uttered 
and much abuse cast on me by the party for submission. After 
a long and warm contest, the resolutions passed by a very 
small majority, perhaps of one or two only. The alarm spread 
throughout America with astonishing quickness, and the min- 
isterial parties were overwhelmed. The great point of resist- 
ance to British taxation was universally established in the 
colonies. This brought on the war which finally separated 
the two countries and gave independence to ours. Whether 
this will prove a blessing or a curse will depend upon the use 
our people make of the blessing which a gracious God hath 



342 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

bestowed on us. If they are wise they will be great and happy ; 
if they are of a contrary character, they will be miserable. 
Righteousness alone can exalt them as a nation. Reader, who- 
ever thou art, remember this and in thy sphere practice virtue 
thyself and encourage it in others." 

Such men as Randolph, Bland, Pendleton, Wythe, and, 
indeed, all the older members and members of weighty influ- 
ence, presented a united opposition to the resolutions as of- 
fered by Mr. Henry, and especially to the fifth resolution. 

It is said that when the last vote had been taken on the 
fifth resolution, Mr. Peyton Randolph, who was at that time 
Attorney-General, was heard to exclaim: "My God, I would 
have given five hundred guineas for a single vote !" This one 
vote would have evenly divided the House, and with Mr. Rob- 
inson's vote, who was in the chair, the last and most vital of 
these resolutions would have been defeated. 

It was in the course of the speech which Mr. Henry made 
upon these resolutions that he cried out in the frenzy of his 
eloquence, "Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Crom- 
well, and George the Third — " Before he could finish the 
sentence the Speaker cried out, "Treason !" and from every 
part of the House the members echoed back, "Treason ! Trea- 
son !" Mr. Henry faltered not for an instant, but rising to a 
loftier altitude, he finished his sentence with splendid empha- 
sis, saying, "may profit by their example ; if this be treason, 
make the most of it." 

Mr. Henry, apparently well satisfied with his work, and 
thinking perhaps that it would be better for him to be re- 
moved from the scenes of such intense excitement, left the 
town that evening. The next morning, when he was quite 
well out of the way, the leaders of the House, who had been 
unable to stem the tide of the great orator's influence the day 
before, undertook to undo at least a part of the work that had 



PATRICK HENRY. 343 

been done before, and expunged the fifth and most important 
of the resolutions, so that the first four resolutions alone re- 
mained on the journal of the House as the final official utter- 
ance. But the mischief had been done, the alarm had been 
sounded and the fire kindled. 

Mr. Tyler says most eloquently of this incident: "Mean- 
time on the wings of the wind and on the eager tongues of 
men had been borne past recall, far northward and far south- 
ward, the fiery, unchastised words of nearly the entire series, 
to kindle in all the colonies a great flame of dauntless pur- 
pose, while Patrick himself, perhaps then only half conscious 
of the fateful work he had just been doing, traveled onward 
along the dusty highway, at once the jolliest, the most popu- 
lar and the least pretentious man in all Virginia, certainly its 
greatest orator, possibly its greatest statesman." 

For nine years, from the close of the House of Burgesses 
in 1765 to the fall of 1774, Mr. Henry remained in tolerable se- 
clusion and gave himself earnestly and industriously to the 
practice of law. 

After his return from his first session with the House of 
Burgesses, he removed his residence to Louisa county and 
lived on an estate called "Roundabout," which he bought from 
his father. However, in 1768 he returned to Hanover, and a 
few years afterwards bought a place called "Scotchtown," 
which continued to be his residence until, as Governor of the 
new State of Virginia, he made Williamsburg his home. 

There seems to have been during this long period no es- 
pecial requisitions made upon Mr. Henry's oratorical gifts. 
He was a conspicuous factor in the numerous conferences 
that were held by leading men in the colony, but there was 
small division among them touching the essential matters at 
stake, so there was little occasion for contention and debate. 
He was sent to every session of the House of Burgesses dur- 



344 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

ing this period; present at almost all local committees and con- 
ventions; was made a member of the first Committee of Cor- 
respondence, and finally was sent as a delegate to the first Con- 
tinental Congress. 

On the 24th of May, 1774, the news of the passage of the 
Boston port bill having come to the ears of the House of Bur- 
gesses, then in session, the following action was taken, setting 
apart the first day of June a,s a day of prayer, humiliation and 
fasting : 

"Devoutly to implore the Divine interposition for averting 
the heavy calamities which threaten destruction to our civil 
rights and evils of civil war ; to give us one heart and one min<2 
firmly to oppose by all just and proper means every injury ta 
American rights, and that the minds of His Majesty and his 
Parliament may be inspired from Above with wisdom, mode- 
ration and justice to remove from the loyal people of America 
all cause of danger from a continued pursuit of measures preg- 
nant with their ruin." 

Lord Dunmore, after considering the matter for two days, 
summoned the House of Burgesses to the Council Chamber 
and said to them : "I have in my hand a paper published by 
order of this House, conceived in such terms as reflect highly 
upon His Majesty and the Parliament of Great Britain, which 
makes it necessary for me to dissolve you, and you are dis- 
solved accordingly.'' 

The following day the members of the House, thus sum- 
marily dissolved, met at the Raleigh Tavern and passed reso- 
lutions deploring the policy pursued by Parliament, and re- 
commended the establishment of an annual Congress, com- 
posed of representatives from all the colonies, "to deliberate on 
those general measures which the united interests of America 
may from time to time require." 

A call was also issued for a convention of delegates from 




Lord Dimmore. 



PATRICK HENRY. 345 

the counties of Virginia to consider matters of interest to the 
colony and to appoint delegates to the Congress at Philadel- 
phia. A paper was passed by this convention setting forth 
the grievances of the colony and earnestly urging concerted 
action on the part of the colonies. They were careful, how- 
ever, in this paper to express in strong language their loyalty 
to King George the Third, "our lawful and rightful sovereign," 
pledging him with their lives and fortunes, support in the legal 
exercise of all his just rights and prerogatives. This conven- 
tion adjourned on Saturday, August 6th, and Mr. Henry im- 
mediately took up his journey to the meeting of the first Con- 
tinental Congress. He .stopped overnight at Mt. Vernon and 
enjoyed the hospitality and counsel of George Washington, 
and next day continued his journey to Philadelphia, having as 
his fellow-travelers Washington and Edmund Pendleton. 
Quite a number of the delegates to the Continental Congress 
had already arrived. The account of the times indicate great 
.interest on the part of the delegates in making the acquaint- 
ance of each other. 

The convention was organized on the 5th day of September, 
with Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, as president, and a Mr. 
Thompson, of Philadelphia, as secretary. Mr. Henry was a 
most active factor in all the work of this convention, serving 
on all of its most prominent committees, but there seems to be 
small ground for the assertion that the convention was at any 
time overawed with the majesty of his speech and eloquence. 
The real facts concerning Mr. Henry's relation to this conven- 
tion do not warrant the statement which is made by Mr. Jef- 
ferson many years after the meeting of this convention, "that 
the superior powers of Patrick Henry were manifest only in 
debate, and that he and Richard Henry Lee took the undis- 
puted lead in the Assembly during the first days of the ses- 
sion while general grievances were the topic, and that both of 



346 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

them were completely thrown in the shade when called down 
from the heights of declamation to that severer test of intelli- 
gent excellence, the details of business." Mr. Jefferson 
throughout seems to have been at special pains to make the 
impression that Mr. Henry's ability consisted only and solely 
in his power of declamation, when the real truth is that in all 
the different conventions in which he met, and in all the con- 
ferences held during these exciting times his services as a wise 
and far-seeing statesman were called more into requisition 
than the use of his gifts as a speaker and orator. The fact that 
in all the committees into whose hands were committed mat- 
ters of most practical importance, Mr. Henry was a member, 
is a very clear indication of the esteem in which he was held 
by those bodies. 

On Monday, the 20th of March, 1775, the second Revolu- 
tionary Convention of Virginia assembled in old St. John's 
Church, Richmond, Va. It was perhaps at this convention 
that Mr. Henry's eloquence reached its loftiest plane. It 
was his speech made on a resolution recommending the imme- 
diate raising of a military force, setting forth the fact that such 
a force would render it unnecessary for the mother country to 
keep any standing army, and further setting forth the fact that 
such a force seemed to be peculiarly necessary at that junc- 
ture for the protection and defense of the country, and in order 
to secure inestimable rights and liberties from the further vio- 
lence with which they were threatened ; and finally, that the 
colony be put immediately into a posture of defense, and 
that a committee be appointed to prepare a plan for arming 
and disciplining such a number of men as might be sufficient 
for that purpose. There was really nothing startlingly new in 
the general import of these resolutions, for not only in Vir- 
ginia, but throughiut well-nigh all the colonies, just such mili- 
tary steps had been taken. It has been said that these resolu- 



PATRICK HENRY. 347 

tions, so far from being- premature, were rather tardy. It is 
altogether probable that the only point of disagreement was 
the urgency and precipitancy of Mr. Henry's resolution. The 
conservative Virginian was unwilling to give up the hope that 
there might be some final and peaceful adjustment of diffi- 
culties made with England, and the startling thing in these 
resolutions and in Mr. Henry's speech made in their support 
was that he had unmistakably given up all hope of any peace- 
ful adjustment, declaring essentially that the war had already 
begun and the exigencies called no longer for debate or peti- 
tion or protest, but for immediate belligerent action. 

It will be quite impossible to give here anything like an 
adequate description of this superlative utterance of the great 
commoner. It i,s seriously to be doubted whether on any oc- 
casion a sublimer height was ever attained by any orator. 

The resolution, in spite of the opposition of wise and good 
men, was passed, and the committee called for was appointed, 
and Mr. Henry was made chairman. Associated with him 
were Richard Henry Lee, Nicholas, Harrison, Riddick, Wash- 
ington, Stevens, Lewis, Christian, Pendleton, Jefferson and 
Zane. 

It took the committee only one day to prepare its plan for 
enlisting, arming and disciplining the militia, and after laying 
over for one day for some alteration, the report of the com- 
mittee was unanimously adopted. The convention adjourned 
on the 27th of March. 

About one month after the meeting of this convention, on 
the night of the 20th of April, 1775, a detachment of marines 
from an English schooner, the Magdalen, visited the maga- 
zine in Williamsburg, which was the public storehouse for gun- 
powder and arms, and carried away fifteen barrels of gun- 
powder and stored them on their own vessel. The news of 
this depredation spread with alarming rapidity throughout the 



348 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

colony, and four days afterward a company at Fredericksburg 
notified their colonel, George Washington, that they were 
ready with many other bodies of men to appear in support of 
the honor of Virginia, and at his command would set out for 
Williamsburg. From other counties there came similar mes- 
sages to Washington. It had been determined that the 29th 
should be the day for the march upon Williamsburg. On that 
day one hundred and two gentlemen, representing the fourteen 
companies that had offered their services, met for a conference, 
and after considering a letter from Peyton Randolph assuring 
them that the affair of the gunpowder would be satisfactorily 
arranged, came to the conclusion that they would proceed no 
further at that time, but pledged themselves, however, that 
they hold themselves "in readiness to reassemble and by force 
of arms to defend the law, the liberty and the rights of this 
or any other sister colony from unjust and wicked invasion." 

Mr. Henry, who had been a close observer of these exciting 
events from his home in Hanover county, was greatly disap- 
pointed that more aggressive steps were not taken. It seemed 
to him wise that an immediate blow should be struck, and 
that the people be reassured of their own strength by some 
overt act of war. He resolved that he himself would take the 
field and lead in the delivering of such a blow. He requested, 
therefore, that the companies of his own county meet him in 
arms at Newcastle, on the 2d of May, on business of the high- 
est importance to American liberty. With this company he 
also asked the presence of the county committee. When the 
meeting was held he strongly urged that immediate action 
should be taken to march on the capital and either to recover 
the gunpowder or procure its equivalent. The officer in im- 
mediate command resigned, and Mr. Henry was put in charge 
of the proposed expedition. Many wise and conservative, and 
even patriotic, men were greatly distressed at this precipitate 



PATRICK HENRY. 349 

procedure, and sent urgent messages asking Mr. Henry that 
he return home. On the other hand, so greatly stirred were 
the people that five thousand men from various quarters 
sprang to arms and sought to become members of the expedi- 
tion marching on Williamsburg. 

At Williamsburg great consternation was felt, and the Gov- 
ernor's family was sent out of the city to a place of safety. 
An appeal was made to the commander of the English ship 
for immediate assistance against an invasion that threatened 
Lord Dunmore with an attack at daybreak at his palace at Wil- 
liamsburg. Before the final issue was made, however, Gov- 
ernor Dunmore concluded that something had better be done 
to propitiate the irate Henry. He accordingly sent a mes- 
senger to Mr. Henry bearing a sum of money amounting to 
£330, as compensation for the gunpowder which had been 
taken from the magazine. The object for which the expedi- 
tion had gone out having been accomplished, there was noth- 
ing to do but that the forces should separate and return to 
their respective homes. 

On the 18th of May Patrick Henry took his place among 
the delegates to the second Continental Congress, and re- 
mained in attendance from the first session of the convention 
until its final adjournment on August 1st. In this convention, 
as in the former one, Mr. Henry seems to have been most ac- 
tive in all the practical work of the body. In the accounts of 
this convention there is again to be discovered a wide discrep- 
ancy between the representations made by Mr. Jefferson, as he 
recalled them forty years afterward, and the real facts of the 
case. With a very remarkable insistence, Mr. Jefferson per- 
sisted in the view that as a practical man Mr. Henry was of 
very little account in the convention, for he again says "that 
at the beginning of this convention, when matters in a general 
way were being considered, Mr. Henry was very conspicuous, 



35o COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

but as soon as they came to specific matters, to sober reason- 
ing- and solid argument, he had the good sense to perceive that 
his declamation, however excellent in its proper place, had no 
weight at all in such an assembly as that of cool-headed, re- 
specting, judicial men. He ceased, therefore, in a great neces- 
sity to take part in the business." Here, again, the records 
of the convention indicate that on every important committee 
Mr. Henry had a place, even on the committees that were 
to address themselves to matters most practical and business- 
like. While he was a member of this convention he was ap- 
pointed as commander-in-chief of the forces of Virginia by a 
convention in session at Richmond, Va., and Washington was 
appointed commander-in-chief of the forces of the united 
colonies. Mr. Henry was commissioned as colonel of the First 
Regiment of Virginia and commander-in-chief of all the forces 
to be raised for the protection and defense of the colony. 

It was in this capacity as commander-in-chief of the forces 
of Virginia that Mr. Henry met with the only real humiliation 
of his long career. For reasons that have never been shown 
to have been inspired by any specific thing in Mr. Henry's 
military career, it was concluded that he was not altogether a 
capable commander. Colonel William Woodford was his sub- 
ordinate and the commander of the Second Regiment. When 
an expedition was to be sent against Lord Dunmore at Nor- 
folk, the military committee put Colonel Woodford in com- 
mand. Mr. Henry was exceedingly chagrined at this unmis- 
takable .slight, and when, afterwards, Colonel Woodford began 
to address all communications direct to the Committee of 
Safety rather than through his nominal commander-in-chief, 
he was further humiliated; and still more abject his humilia- 
tion when it was decided to raise a larger body of troops in 
Virginia, necessitating the office of a brigadier-general, a com- 
mission was made out to Mr. Henry as only colonel of the 



PATRICK HENRY. 351 

first Virginia battalion, whereas by the regular order of pro- 
motion he should have been commissioned as brigadier-general. 
Immediately Mr. Henry resigned his commission and retired 
from military life. 

However patriotic and sound may have been the judgment 
of the authorities touching Mr. Henry's military capacity, it 
seems only fair to say that that judgment was reached by an 
all too insufficient trial of Mr. Henry in the field. He was 
allowed no opportunity to demonstrate his capacity, whether 
small or large. 

At the close of his brief military experience he returned to 
his home in Hanover, in March, 1776. The year before his 
wife had died, leaving six motherless children, and Mr. Henry- 
found great satisfaction in being left alone with them, if only 
for a brief season. In May he was called from his seclusion 
to meet with the great convention at Williamsburg. Matters 
were hastening toward a crisis. It was felt on every hand that 
the next step must be a formal dissolution of all relations with 
England. For the first time there seems to have been hesi- 
tancy on the part of Mr. Henry. He believed well enough 
that separation was inevitable, but he felt that before the 
last step was taken other preliminary matters should be as- 
sured and arranged. He wanted to be sure of the posture of 
France and Spain and of the united action of all the colonies. 
He was, however, soon won over to the advocacy of imme- 
diate action. Perhaps this was due to a letter he had received 
from Mr. Charles Lee, who importuned him to use his great 
influence in securing immediate action looking toward final 
separation. On the 15th day of May, after a prolonged debate, 
in which Mr. Henry made a most powerful plea for the pro- 
posed action, the convention unanimously passed the follow- 
ing resolution : 

"That the delegates appointed to represent this colony in 



352 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

\ 

general Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable 
body to declare the united colonies free and independent 
States, absolved from allegiance to, or dependence upon, the 
ciown or Parliament of Great Britain; and that they give the 
assent of the colony to such declaration and to whatever meas- 
ures may be thought proper and necessary by the Congress 
for the forming foreign alliances and a confederation of the 
colonies at such time and in the manner as shall to them seem 
best; provided that the power of forming government for, and 
the regulations of the internal concerns of, each colony be left 
to the respective colonial Legislatures." 

On the 12th of June the committee reported the Declaration 
of Rights, expressed in sixteen articles, and which the conven- 
tion adopted unanimously. This document set forth the great 
fundamental rights that were to be "the basis and foundation 
of government in Virginia." Mr. George Mason was the au- 
thor of the first fourteen articles and Mr. Henry the author of 
the last two — the last of which was most notable because it 
was the first formal and official assertion and sanction of the 
doctrine of religious liberty that had ever been given in Vir- 
ginia. 

As soon as the convention had committed the State to sep- 
aration, action was taken on the appointment of a committee 
"to prepare a declaration of rights and such a plan of gov- 
ernment as will be most likely to maintain peace and order in 
the colony and secure substantial and equal liberty to the peo- 
ple." On June the 29th the plan reported, through Mr. Archi- 
bald Cary, was adopted. There was an unmistakable conflict 
between the democratic and aristocratic elements of the con- 
vention. The former came off victorious. The last clause of 
the Constitution provided that a Governor should be elected 
by the convention to hold office until the next General As- 
sembly should adjourn. When the ballot was taken it was 



PATRICK HENRY. 353 

found that Mr. Henry had received sixty votes, Thomas Nelson 
forty-five votes, and John Page one vote. Mr. Henry was de- 
clared accordingly elected first Governor of the Common- 
wealth of Virginia. 

Mr. Henry entered upon the duties of his office on the 
5th of July, 1776. His salary was fixed at £1,000 per year. 
His elevation to this high office gave cordial and universal 
satisfaction. From all quarters of the State, and even from 
other colonies, came congratulations and good wishes. While 
the Governor's palace, lately vacated by Lord Dunmore, was 
being renovated and prepared for his reception, Mr. Henry 
returned for a brief season to his home in Hanover. On his 
recovery from several weeks' illness, he removed his family 
to Williamsburg and took up his residence in the Governor's 
palace. It is said that, greatly to the disappointment of his 
enemies among the aristocrats, he conducted himself as Gov- 
ernor with great dignity, meeting all the requirements and pro- 
prieties of the great office with consummate ease and in most 
excellent taste. 

The scope of this chapter will not permit any detailed ac- 
count of the remaining years of his life. He was elected Gov- 
ernor three times successively, and doubtless would have been 
chosen for the fourth time if he had not insisted that he was 
by the Constitution made ineligible. During the second term 
as Governor he was married to Miss Dorothea Dandridge, a 
granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood. Miss Dandridge was 
by many years the junior of her distinguished husband, but 
they lived together in great happiness, she proving to be for 
him during the remainder of his years a most true and loving 
helpmeet. In 1784 he was again elected Governor. When he 
removed his family from "Leatherwood," in November, 1784, 
he took up his residence, not in Williamsburg, but at a place 
called Salisbury, located on the other side of the James River. 



354 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

In 1786 he declined another election as Governor, and retired 
to his home, and undertook by the practice of his profession 
to build up his fortune, which had become impaired. 

Nor can there be allowed any minute account of the charge 
that he aspired to be dictator, or of the suspicion he rested 
under by reason of his opposition to the adoption of the Fed- 
eral Constitution by the Virginia Convention. There is no 
proof that Mr. Henry ever heard of any scheme to make him 
dictator, or that he ever dreamed of such a preposterous thing. 
It is not unlikely, as pointed out by Mr. Tyler, that whatever 
use there was made of the word dictator was simply in the 
confiding to the Governor enlarged powers in exigencies de- 
manding unusual and prompt action. His opposition to the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution was due, not to any 
change or inconsistency in his views, but simply to his strong 
insistence that certain rights be more clearly defined, and not 
left for recognition by implication only. No one believed more 
ardently than he in a strong and fixed federation of the States, 
but he sought a union based upon a clear definition of rights. 
For all the qualities that go to make up a great statesman and 
orator, perhaps in no other part of his life did Mr. Henry ever 
make so superb a demonstration of power and capacity as in 
this great convention. 

And there can be permitted only a brief word concerning 
the part he played in securing the amendments to the Consti- 
tution, a task to which he addressed all his great powers most 
assiduously. He had acquiesced in the adoption of the Con- 
stitution with the expressed hope that when the defects 
he had tried to point out were realized they would be re- 
moved by amendment. Through his influence, after a long 
struggle, the Legislature of Virginia asked Congress to call 
another convention to which the Constitution should be re- 
submitted. This Congress refused to do, but suffered ten 



PATRICK HENRY. 355 

amendments to the Constitution, in which was embodied 
nearly all of the changes desired by Virginia. 

When Mr. Henry was fifty-eight years old, and being pos- 
sessed of a competency, he resolved that the remainder of his 
years should be spent in peaceful retirement. In 1795 he set- 
tled in Charlotte county, on a country place called "Red Hill," 
and it was from this place he was carried to his grave. In 1796 
the Assembly of Virginia again elected him Governor, but he 
declined the honor of being Governor of Virginia for the sixth 
time. Strong effort was made to induce him to come out of 
his retirement. He declined the appointment offered by Mr. 
Adams "to be envoy extraordinary and minister plenipoten- 
tiary to the French republic," with full powers to effect a 
treaty with that republic. He did, however, yield to the im- 
portunity of Mr. Washington and others, and allowed himself, 
after a most picturesque campaign, to be again elected to the 
General Assembly of Virginia in 1799. He was never per- 
mitted to take his seat. Early in June of that year he was 
seized with a fatal illness called then intussusception, now gen- 
erally know as appendicitis. His end was quite in keeping 
with the life he had led, simple and dignified, without confu- 
sion or fear. When told of his critical condition, and holding 
in his hand the desperate dose which was the last resort of 
his beloved physician, Dr. Cabell, he bowed his head in prayer 
for his family, his country, and his own soul, and then quietly 
swallowed the fatal prescription. He lingered only a little 
while, comforting and reassuring his relatives in their dis- 
tress, and expressing his thanksgiving for having been per- 
mitted to serve his country in so many ways. He passed away, 
bearing especial witness to the support of the Christian re- 
ligion, on the 6th of June, 1799. 



; 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

If Patrick Henry was the prophet of the Revolution, 

! Thomas Jefferson may be considered as the philosopher of 
the Revolution. On the very day when Henry was making 
his famous speech in the House of Burgesses, in 1765, in op- 
position to the stamp tax, the day upon which was really in- 
augurated the beginning of ostensible opposition to British 
government, Jefferson, then a student at Williamsburg, was 
standing against the door-post of the old capitol and heard the 
burning eloquence of Patrick Henry when he shouted, "Caesar 
had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and George 
the Third — may profit by their example." After the speech 
the young student walked the length of the Duke of Glou- 
cester Street, from the capitol back to the college, a distance 
of about a mile, pondering over the great things that Henry 
had spoken, and giving his full consent that the contention 
of Henry was right and that the people must have a real part 
in their government. From that day Thomas Jefferson, the 
especial friend of Governor Fauquier, the Governor whom he 
was pleased to style as the best Governor Virginia ever had, 
went to his home, having seen a great light and come to an in- 
vincible conviction that all taxation without representation 
was oppression and tyranny. As a boy he had engraved on 
his seal "Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God," and the 
utterance of Patrick Henry burned this great principle more 
deeply into his heart. 

356 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 357 

It was on May 30, 1765, when the famous resolutions of- 
fered and advocated by Patrick Henry were passed by the 
House of Burgesses. Jefferson was just past the age of 
twenty-two, having been born on April 13, 1743, at Shadwell, 
near Charlottesville, Va. 

Who was this young man, destined to be so conspicuous 
in the history of the United States? 

So large was his contribution to the foundations of our 
national government that his name will be forever known 
wherever republican forms of government exist and wherever 
political equality is the co-ordinating principle of government. 

He was the son of a plain Virginia surveyor named Peter 
Jefferson. His mother, however, was Jane Randolph, who 
belonged to the famous Randolph family of Virginia, and 
which had in its blood a thoroughly good strain of the Eng- 
lish gentry, so that Thomas Jefferson's scorn of such things 
was entirely gratuitous, if not stultifying. 

His education began, when he was five years of age, under 
a private tutor. He afterwards attended a private school, 
and at seventeen he was prepared to enter college. He was 
a slender young man, tall, thin and rawboned, with reddish 
hair and grayish hazel eyes. He was not then regarded as 
being handsome, but his face showed great intelligence. He 
grew to be a man of six feet two inches in stature. He was 
fond of shooting, and was regarded as one of the best horse- 
men in Virginia. Like Henry, he was devoted to music, and 
when he rode on horseback to William and Mary College in 
1760, he carried with him his beloved fiddle. During his first 
year at college he did not give himself very industriously to 
his studies, but spent most of his time in the enjoyment of the 
various social functions and festivities incident to the gay 
capital life at Williamsburg. Whenever there was a ball in 
the Apollo Room at the old Raleigh Tavern, the young stu- 



358 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

dent from Albemane was very much in evidence. After his 
first year at William and Mary, however, he seems to have 
settled down to honest and steady work, oftentimes studying 
as many as fifteen hours a day. He was graduated from the 
college with honor. 

He began his study of law under George Wythe, who be- 
came the first professor of law at William and Mary College. 
Mr. Wythe was a prominent figure in all the discussions and 
agitations incident to the Revolutionary struggle, and in 
laying the constitutional foundations of the Commonwealth of 
Virginia and of the united colonies. 

Young Jefferson seems to have been on quite intimate 
terms with many of the professors. He was frequently the 
guest of Professor Small and Mr. Wythe in their homes, and 
was often the companion of Governor Fauquier, a gay and 
accomplished gentleman. 

Not far from Williamsburg there lived a rich lawyer 
named John Wayles, and with him a widowed daughter, Mrs. 
Martha Skelton. She was very fond of music, and in this 
particular she and young Jefferson were kindred spirits, and 
the young man spent many pleasant evenings at her home, 
"The Forest." On the ist of June, 1772, they were married, 
and took up immediately their journey to Jefferson's beau- 
tiful estate, "Monticello," about two miles from Charlottes- 
ville. The weather was grievously bad, and before they 
reached the end of their journey they were obliged to leave 
the carriage and proceed on horseback. They were so be- 
lated in their arrival at "Monticello'' that they found the 
fires all out and the servants were away from home. The 
dark and the cold and the unpropitious welcome at home 
made a dreary prospect for the young bridal couple. But 
they were too happy to be disturbed by such externalities, 
and only joked and laughed at their hard and unusual expe- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 359 

rience.- They went into a pavilion in the yard and Jefferson 
found in a book-case some biscuits and wine, which proved 
to be the only refreshments that the groom could offer to his 
bride after their long and fatiguing journey. 

When the House of Burgesses passed the resolution of 
1769, he was one of those who signed the agreement not to 
import goods from England. He was also a member of the 
House of Burgesses when, in 1773, it established a Committee 
of Correspondence between Virginia and the other colonies. 
It is thought by some that the resolutions calling for such a 
committee were drawn up by Jefferson, though they were of- 
fered in the House by his kinsman, Dabney Carr. Of this 
committee Jefferson was a member. He was also a member 
of the House of Burgesses in 1774, and was one of those who 
voted for the resolution appointing a day of fasting and 
prayer in view of the oppressive measures which England had 
inaugurated against the city of Boston. After the dissolution 
of the Assembly by Dunmore, Jefferson met the following 
day with the discontented members who assembled in the 
Raleigh Tavern, and called for a general Congress for the 
colonies, and requested a convention of the freeholders of 
Virginia to consider the state of the colony. Jefferson was 
made a member of this convention, representing the people 
of Albemarle. He was a member of the Continental Con- 
gress that met in 1775. At this time he was a young man of 
just thirty-two years of age, but had already become widely 
known as an eloquent writer and a radical Revolutionist. 

In the meantime there was great excitement in Virginia, 
produced by the passage of resolutions offered by Mr. Henry 
for the arming of the Colony of Virginia, and Virginia was 
in open and flagrant rebellion against Lord Dunmore. The 
action of the convention that, met at Williamsburg in 1776, 
in declaring that the colonies should be free and independent 



360 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

States ; in proclaiming its famous Declaration of Rights, and 
in the adoption of a Constitution for the future government 
of Virginia, and finally in the election of Patrick Henry as 
Governor, was received with universal satisfaction. When 
the first resolutions offered by Pendleton were adopted, the 
people were wild in their enthusiasm, and amid the ringing 
of bells and the thunder of artillery the action defying the 
royal power of England was indorsed with most vociferous 
unanimity. The resolutions were read to the army in the 
presence of the general, the Committee of Safety, the mem- 
bers of the convention and a large concourse of people. The 
soldiers shared the universal delight and satisfaction. They 
were feasted that night at Waller's Grove, on the outskirts 
of the town. The city was illuminated with many bonfires. 
It was hard to realize that old Williamsburg, where so many 
Governors had lived in royal style, was never again to be the 
home of a representative of the English government. No 
more Governor's balls were to be held in the old palace, and 
no more toasts were to be drunk at the Governor'g banquets. 
Monarchy was dead in the Old Dominion. The Cavalier 
spirit which upheld Charles the First and his wicked son, 
Charles the Second had lost all respect for the English crown, 
and a true spirit of democracy seized hold of the people of 
Virginia, who were now ready to defy the British lion and 
to set up a republic in which all the people would be equally 
free and independent. All honor is due to old Virginia for 
having laid the basis of republican government in America 
by the adoption of Pendleton's resolutions favoring an im- 
mediate Declaration of Independence. 

In harmony with these famous resolutions, and in obedi- 
ence to the instructions therein contained, Richard Henry Lee, 
of Virginia, on the 7th of June, 1776, moved in the Continental 
Congress, in session in Philadelphia, that "these united colo- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 361 

nies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent." 
Lee would doubtless have been made chairman of the com- 
mittee to draft a Declaration of Independence but for the fact 
that he was immediately called home on account of sickness 
in his family. In his absence Mr. Jefferson, whose facility 
for writing had become thoroughly well known to Congress, 
was, by vote, named as chairman of a committee over such 
men as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and 
Robert W. Livingston. To him, as chairman, was allotted the 
task of drafting that immortal instrument which remains in 
the history of the world as the most revolutionary political 
paper ever written. 

On the 4th day of July, 1776, the instrument, with little 
change, as prepared by Jefferson, was unanimously adopted, 
and to it were affixed the signatures of all the members of 
Congress then present save one. The principle set forth in 
that document declared for a government for and by the peo- 
ple, and its full and accurate expression indicates that Jeffer- 
son was far ahead of his day, for it is only at the dawn of 
the twentieth century that we are beginning to appreciate the 
great and universal truths emphasized by Thomas Jefferson. 
Jefferson retired from Congress in 1776, and entered the Vir- 
ginia Legislature with the hope of revising and modifying 
her laws so that they might be brought into accord with real 
republican government. Believing in freedom of thought, 
he did not see how there could be an established church, or 
how a law could exist whereby preachers of the other faiths 
could be imprisoned. Jefferson had in mind the preachers of 
the Baptist faith especially, who had been arrested in Spot- 
sylvania, Caroline, Chesterfield, Culpeper, Orange and Mid" 
dlesex counties. He remembered how, in Culpeper, a con- 
spiracy was formed to poison one preacher in jail, and how 
three were tried in Spotsylvania county for preaching the gos- 



362 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

pel of Christ contrary to the law. Patrick Henry, who was 
present at that trial, was said to have exclaimed : "May it 
please Your Worships, what did I hear read? Did I hear an 
expression that these men whom Your Worships are about to 
try are charged with preaching the gospel of the Son of God?" 

While these unfortunate persecutions existed in Virginia, 
something like thirty preachers, all told, were imprisoned on 
the ground that they violated the peace of the community. 
In addition to the Baptists there were many other dissenters, 
Presbyterians, Quakers and Methodists. The members of 
these denominations were strongly republican and very vig- 
orous in the overthrow of English rule in America. Mr. 
Hawkes, in his history of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
tells us that the Baptist preachers advised the young men of 
their churches to enlist in the Continental army and in the 
militia of the State. 

These independent religious bodies petitioned earnestly 
the Legislature to disestablish the Church of England. Be- 
sides the support of those agreeing with them in religious 
forms, many of the most prominent political leaders of the 
State and many devout members even of the established 
church co-operated with them in this great movement. 
Among the political leaders who advocated the claim of the 
independent bodies were Jefferson and Madison. In 1776 
Jefferson made a serious effort towards disestablishment. In 
this he was not altogether successful, and only succeeded in 
securing a bill which allowed all religious denominations to 
own their own houses of worship and that their ministers 
might preach without molestation. It was not until 1785 that 
the dissenting ministers were permitted to discharge funeral 
rites or marriage ceremonies. In that year Jefferson's famous 
bill for religious liberty, introduced and championed by James 
Madison, passed the Virginia Legislature and established per- 
fect religious freedom throughout the Commonwealth. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 363 

Jefferson maintained that the entail and primogeniture 
systems were incompatible with democratic institutions, and 
should be abolished. By this system it was provided that the 
eldest son should inherit the landed family estate, and that 
the estate could never be sold, and could only pass from 
father to son and thus be forever retained in the family. This 
seemed to Jefferson to be the perpetuation of a pure aristoc- 
racy, which he believed should not be allowed to exist under 
democratic forms of government. In the advocacy of these 
views he met with very strong and stubborn opposition. 
Among those who were bitterly opposed to the indorsement 
of his views were many wise and eminent statesmen, among 
them Edmund Pendleton. Finally, however, the views en- 
tertained by Jefferson prevailed, and a bill was passed abol- 
ishing the entail and primogeniture systems, and by this act 
the last remnant of English aristocracy was destroyed in the 
Commonwealth of Virginia. 

Mr. Pendleton, who seems to have been the ablest and 
most violent of the opposers to Jefferson's radical views, after- 
wards became chief judge of Virginia, being president judge 
of its Court of Appeals. When, years afterward, the question 
of the right of the church to certain lands became a matter 
to be adjudicated, he was prepared and ready to give his 
opinion in favor of the church. These lands were the pro" 
perty of the State. In 1802 a law was passed ordering the 
glebes to be sold and the money to be used for the care of 
the poor. The Episcopal Church, which had been the estab- 
lished church, took the matter into the court, and it came be- 
fore the Court of Appeals, of which, as we have said, Mr. 
Pendleton was president judge. It is said that Mr. Pendle- 
ton had prepared an opinion favoring the church and declar- 
ing the law alienating the lands from the Episcopal Church 
as being unconstitutional, and ordered that they be restored 



364 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

to the church. The day set for the delivery of this declara- 
tion was the 25th of October, 1803, but only a few days be- 
fore, Pendleton was taken sick, and died on the very day that 
he was to have delivered his opinion. The new president 
judge of the Court of Appeals held a different opinion from 
Mr. Pendleton, and the glebe lands were sold and never re- 
turned to the Episcopal Church. 

In the adoption of the Constitution of Virginia and its 
Bill of Rights, Jefferson had very little to do. At the time 
that Pendleton's resolutions were carried providing for the 
Constitution of the State of Virginia, Jefferson was a member 
of the Continental Congress, but he did not forget to take 
interest in the affairs of his State, and he sent to Williams- 
burg a copy of the Constitution and the preamble. His copy 
arrived too late, as the committee had already acted on the 
Declaration of Rights on the 12th of June and the Constitu- 
tion on the 29th of June. George Mason, of Fairfax county, 
in accordance with Pendleton's resolutions, had been placed 
upon the committee, and to his pen we are indebted for the 
Declaration of Rights, often called the Bill of Rights, and 
also for our first Constitution. 

The Declaration of Rights is the groundwork of the gov- 
ernment of Virginia. It declares that all men are created 
equally free and independent ; that all power is derived from 
the people; that government is instituted for the common 
benefit, protection and security of the people ; that no man or 
set of men is entitled to exclusive or separate privileges ; that 
all men having common interest in the community should 
have the right to vote, and that the freedom of the press 
should never be restricted. It further states "that no free 
government or a blessing of liberty can be preserved to any 
people but by firm adherence to justice, moderation, temper" 
ance, frugality and virtue," and "that religion can be directed 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 365 

only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and, 
therefore, that all men are equally entitled to the free exer- 
cise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and 
that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbear- 
ance, love and charity towards each other." 

After some debate, the Declaration pf Rights was adopted 
en the 12th of June, 1776, and on the 29th day of the same 
month the Constitution of Virginia was approved. Thus Vir- 
ginia became a republic, and if we can believe the accounts 
that have been handed down, George Mason is entitled to the 
credit of having written both of these documents, of which 
every Virginian is so justly proud. 

George Mason seems, likewise, to have designed the seal 
of Virginia, which represents "Virtue, the genius of the Com- 
monwealth, dressed like an Amazon, resting on a spear with 
one hand and holding a sword with the other, and treading 
Tyranny, represented by a man prostrate, a crown fallen from 
his head, a broken chain in his left hand and a scourge in his 
right." Above the head of Virtue is placed the word "Vir- 
ginia," and underneath the figure the words, "Sic semper 
tyrannis." 

The preamble to Jefferson's proposed Constitution, how- 
ever, was so good that it was taken by Mason and made as 
the preamble to the Virginia Constitution. Hence the pre- 
amble of our first Constitution is so similar in thought to the 
Declaration of Independence, which was adopted five days 
after Virginia's first Constitution. Jefferson represents the 
transition from Colonial Virginia to the Commonwealth of 
Virginia. He was a democrat of democrats. He was opposed 
to all forms of nobility and to all privileged classes. He was 
opposed to monarchical government and believed in universal 
suffrage. He was way ahead of his time, and was even anx- 
ious for the abolition of slavery and proposed a plan about 



366 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

emancipation. His idea was to state a certain year and day, 
after which all negroes born of slave parents should be made 
free and should be carried out of the State. In other words, 
he favored what we have recently heard discussed so much 
in the papers, the deportation of the negroes from the State. 

We should not forget to remember Jefferson's educational 
plan. He believed that all men should have a voice in the 
government, but feared that they might give bad rather than 
good government unless they were educated. He therefore 
proposed the establishment of primary and high schools 
throughout the State, with a State university as a capstone. 
The Legislature adopted his plans, but they were never fully 
put into operation, and his scheme for the establishment of 
a university was not accomplished until 1819. He was then 
an old man and had retired from public life. After various 
exertions he saw the university established at Charlottesville 
on broad and liberal plans. He became its first rector, and 
brought to this country some of the greatest scholars of 
Europe to instruct the young Virginians. He planned well 
the institution which was the darling of his old age, for it has 
not only educated many of the leaders of our State, but has 
likewise wielded a great influence over the whole South. 

From June, 1779, to June, 1781, Jefferson was Governor of 
Virginia. At this time the State was invaded by the British 
troops, and Jefferson and the Legislature were forced to flee 
from Richmond to Charlottesville, from which place they were 
driven by Tarleton. Jefferson lacked the troops and the 
money with which to defend Virginia properly, though he 
did all that lay in his power. 

It was at this time that Thomas Nelson so nobly came 
to the assistance of Virginia. Nelson had been a member of 
the convention of 1776, and he it was who offered the resolu- 
tions that were drawn by Pendleton asking that other dele- 
gates of Congress declare the colonies free and independent. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 367 

Though Nelson loved England, having been educated 
there, he had decided that there was but one course for the 
colonies to pursue. He said : "Having weighed the argument 
on both sides, I am clearly of the opinion that we must, as 
we value the liberty of America or even her existence, with- 
out a moment's delay declare our independence." He was 
again made a member of the Continental Congress, and was 
present on the 4th of July when the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was adopted. As one of the representatives of Vir- 
ginia he signed that famous document, together with Jeffer- 
son, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, 
Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, and Carter Braxton. 

In 1777, when it was reported that the British fleet was 
about to enter the Chesapeake Bay, Thomas Nelson was 
elected commander-in-chief of the Virginia troops. A little 
later Congress called for volunteers, and Nelson, in response, 
raised a company at his own expense and marched north to 
help the Continental Army. In this expedition he spent a 
great deal of money, for which he was never repaid. When 
he reached the North, General William Howe, the English 
commander, had evacuated Philadelphia, so Nelson's troops 
were disbanded. 

In 1779 the English prepared to invade Virginia. There- 
upon the Virginia Assembly put the State troops under the 
direction of Nelson, and tried to raise two million of dollars 
with which to defend the State. The wealthy men had so 
little faith in the State government that they refused to lend 
to it, but General Nelson came to the rescue and subscribed 
largely of his own fortune, whereupon many persons decided, 
on Nelson's security, to let Virginia have the money. 

In the fall of 1780 Benedict Arnold, the traitor, sailed up 
the James River and tried to land near Williamsburg, but was 
driven off by the militia under General Nelson. Arnold then 



368 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

went up the river to Westover, where he landed some eight 
hundred men and marched toward Richmond. Nelson, in 
the meantime, had gone up the James, but reached Westover 
top late to cut off Arnold, who had proceeded to Richmond 
and entered the little city. Governor Jefferson and the Leg- 
islature having abandoned the city, it was plundered by 
Arnold's troops, and many of the houses were burned. As 
Arnold returned down the river he pillaged the country, but 
for fear of Nelson's troops he retired to Portsmouth. Here 
the people of Virginia planned to capture the traitor. 

A force of two thousand English was sent to Virginia 
under General Phillips, who occupied Petersburg, to prevent 
Arnold's being taken prisoner. To meet these English forces, 
Washington dispatched from his army, then in New York, 
the young French Marquis de Lafayette, with twelve hun- 
dred men. He was joined by about three thousand of the 
State militia under General Nelson, and attacked the English 
at Petersburg. Phillips refused to give battle in the field, 
but remained shut up in Petersburg, a part of which was 
cannonaded at the command of Lafayette. Phillips was very 
ill of fever, and while the siege was in progress he died. It 
is said that he exclaimed on his death-bed, as he heard the 
roar of cannon, "My God ! it is cruel. They will not let me 
die in peace." 

Arnold, who had joined forces with Phillips, now took 
command of the English, and he sent an officer with a flag 
and a letter to Lafayette, but the gallant Frenchman tefused 
to have any intercourse whatever with the traitor, and re- 
turned the letter unread. Shortly after this Cotnwallis ar- 
rived in Petersburg, and probably saved Arnold from being 
captured. Cornwallis, being a high-minded man, was dis- 
gusted with the traitor Arnold, and no sooner did he reach 
Virginia than he gave Arnold a leave of absence to return to 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 369 

New York City. Thus departed the traitor from Virginia 
soil. 

Since Cornwallis had in Petersburg nearly eight thou- 
sand men, Lafayette did not feel able to resist him, and, there- 
fore, he retired to the vicinity of Richmond to await the rein- 
forcements which Washington was sending under General 
Wayne. When the British commander heard that he was 
opposed by Lafayette, it was reported that he said, "The boy 
cannot escape me." But, though only twenty-three years of 
age, Lafayette was wise beyond his years, and in addition he 
had the advice of General Nelson. Cornwallis advanced from 
Petersburg and Lafayette retired by way of Fredericksburg 
into Culpeper county. A division of troops under Colonel 
Tarleton was sent to Charlottesville to capture the Virginia 
Legislature and Governor Jefferson. In this Tarleton failed, 
Jefferson making his escape on horseback from "Monticello," 
and the Legislature going across the mountains into the 
Valley. Soon after this Jefferson retired from the governor- 
ship. 

In concluding we must say a word about Jefferson's work 
for the United States. He had done a great work for his 
State, but he did much, likewise, for the country at large. 

He served in Congress from 1783 to 1784; was Minister 
to France from 1784 to 1789, and was a member of Wash- 
ington's cabinet, being the first Secretary of State. In the 
latter position he showed himself a believer in States' rights, 
claiming that Congress should not legislate about matters 
which were not expressly provided for in the Constitution 
of the United States. These views mark him as the founder 
of what we now call the Democratic party. 

After serving one term as Vice-President, he was elected 
President of the United States, and presided over the affairs 
of the nation for eight years. During his administration the 



370 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

incident known as the Louisiana Purchase transpired. This 
vast domain had been deeded by Spain to France. Napoleon 
wanted very much to re establish the influence of France in 
America, but found his hands quite full with affairs nearer 
home. He was just then greatly concerned and preoccupied 
in the reorganization of Europe. The next best thing, in 
order to secure the favor of America, was to dispose of the 
Louisiana domain to the government of the United States.. 
This he finally did for a consideration of fifteen millions of 
dollars. Out of this domain has been carved the present 
States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, 
Iowa, Montana, Wyoming and Dakota. The treaty con- 
nected with this purchase was made in May, 1803. Aside 
from the vast increase of territory, other very great advan- 
tages accrued from this purchase. Had this not been done, 
this country would have been shut in to one side of the Mis- 
sissippi River, her Gulf ports would have shut or opened at 
the caprice of a foreign power, and immunity from danger- 
ous foes would have been indefinitely postponed. The far- 
seeing wisdom which brought about this result will in itself 
forever indicate the high quality of statesmanship with which 
this great Virginian discharged the duties of his great office. 
On his retirement from the presidency in 1809, Jefferson 
went to spend the remaining days of his life at "Monticello." 
Here he did not remain inactive, but took a deep interest in 
the affairs of Virginia and of the United States. He was 
consulted for nearly a quarter of a century by the leaders of 
the Democratic party, and was spoken of as the "Sage of 
Monticello." He devoted much thought to education, espe- 
cially to the university. To his home came travelers, tour- 
ists and friends from all parts of the country. His house- 
keeper often had to provide fifty beds for his guests. Through 
his generosity and hospitality his fortune of some two hun- 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 371 

dred thousand dollars slipped away, and at the time of his 
death nothing was left save his estate at "Monticello," and 
that was loaded with debt. He died on the 4th of July, 1826, 
just fifty years after the Declaration of Independence had 
been signed. 

A review of Mr. Jefferson's life and work will show him 
to have been identified as leader or strong advocate of the 
following great governmental policies and principles: repub- 
lican government and sovereignty of the people, opposition to 
privileged orders of nobility and the entail system, univer- 
sal education and local circulating libraries, separation of 
church and state, freedom of thought and speech, local self- 
government, economy of government and small pubiic debt, 
policy of peace, political equality and universal suffrage, strict 
construction of the Constitution and sovereignty of the State, 
2 well-trained militia and small standing army, metallic cur- 
rency of either gold and silver as standard and no paper legal 
tender, opposition to bounties and monopolies, emancipation 
and deportation of slaves, expansion of the United States so 
as to include Louisiana, Florida, Cuba and Canada, a judiciary 
beyond the control of legislative and executive departments 
pf government, a small navy, opposition to nepotism, rota- 
tion in office, and opposition to all secession movements North 
or South. All of these found clear interpretation and able 
advocacy by the great mind and strong arm of the great 
philosopher and statesman. 

Jefferson desired to be remembered for three things : as 
the "Author of the Declaration of American Independence ; 
of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and the 
Feather of the University of Virginia," and these three things 
place him in the front rank of our great men. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, THE SWORD OF THE 
REVOLUTION. 

If it be true that in the evolution of empires there must be 
a prophet, who shall catch its far away vision ; a soldier, whose 
sword shall carve put and define its boundaries ; and a philoso- 
pher, who shall give it structural unity, then in the founding 
of the American empire Virginia furnished a man for the 
discharge of each of these high functions — Patrick Henry, its 
frenzied prophet ; Thomas Jefferson, its far-seeing philosopher ; 
and George Washington, its incomparable captain. Not, in- 
deed, that these stood alone ; others in Virginia and in all the 
colonies shared their dreams, their high planning and their 
valorous struggles. Of such Virginians as George Rogers 
Clark, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Mason and 
Edmund Pendleton these chapters have made mention more 
or less full. It is the purpose of this concluding chapter 
to relate the story of George Washington, not unfittingly 
styled "The Sword of the Revolution." 

The Northern Neck of Virginia, composed of Westmore- 
land, Northumberland, King George, Richmond and Lan- 
caster counties, has a history of which it is justly proud ; 
but Westmoreland county can boast that she gave to Virginia 
and to our country George Washington, the most conspicuous 
figure in all our national life. Washington was born on the 
22d day of February, 1732. His birthplace was on Bridges 
Creek, not far from the Potomac River. The house contained 

372 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 373 

lour rooms on the ground floor, an attic with a sloping roof 
and a large brick chimney. Three years after his birth the 
family removed to Stafford county, just across the river 
from Fredericksburg. Here his father, Augustine Washing- 
ton, died when Washington was only eleven years old, and 
he was left to the care of his mother, whose maiden name was 
Mary Ball. She was a woman of strong will, religious and 
stern, but kind. She was devoted to George, and as he grew 
to be a man, she was accustomed to say, "George has been a 
good boy, and he will surely do his duty." She taught her 
son the principles of truth and honor. 

Washington had poor school advantages, but while in 
Stafford he was taught reading and writing by the sexton of 
the parish, a man named Hobby. Later he was sent to live 
with his half-brother, Augustine Washington, in Westmore- 
land county, in order that he might receive instruction from 
a Mr. Williams, who conducted a fairly good school. Here 
Washington learned some mathematics and land surveying. 
Among the boys Washington was leader both in his studies 
and upon the playground. He used to divide his companions 
into armies, one of which he always commanded himself. He 
excelled his playmates in running, jumping and wrestling. 

The two older brothers, Lawrence and Augustine Wash- 
ington, had been educated in England, where many Virginia 
boys were sent to school, but on account of the death of his 
father, George was deprived of this privilege. In 1747, when 
he was not quite sixteen, he left school and went to visit his 
brother Lawrence, who resided at Mount Vernon, near Alex- 
andria. Here he met Lord Fairfax, an old bachelor, who had 
come to Virginia to take possession of his large grant of land 
across the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was the purpose of Lord 
Fairfax to send settlers into that region, but before doing so 
it was necessary that the country should be surveyed. For 



374 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

this work he found young Washington in every way capable. 

Though so young, Washington was robust, nearly six feet 
tall and well formed, with long arms and big hands and feet. 
He had light brown hair and grayish blue eyes, and was a 
splendid type of manly boy. In character, too, he was to be 
admired, for he was honorable, persevering in whatever he 
undertook and wise far beyond his years. 

In 1748, accompanied by George Fairfax, a kinsman of 
Lord Fairfax, Washington crossed over the Blue Ridge into 
what is now Frederick county, Va., where he began his work. 
For three years he remained as a surveyor. During this time 
he suffered many hardships. He often slept for weeks at a 
time on the ground before the camp fire, and often for days 
at a time his clothes were wet. For his work Washington 
received a doubloon a day (about eight dollars in our money). 
Lord Fairfax was so pleased with the account of the Shenan- 
doah Valley that he moved across the Blue Ridge and built a 
home there, which he called Greenway Court. Here Wash- 
ington was frequently a visitor, and whenever he had a chance 
he would read in the library of Lord Fairfax. On the recom- 
mendation of his lordship, Washington was appointed by the 
president of William and Mary College a surveyor of Culpeper 
county, which then extended across the mountains. He was 
kept constantly at work, for at this time many Germans were 
coming into the northern valley, and a surveyor was needed 
to cut off for each man his tract of land. 

Though merely a boy, Washington showed himself a man 
of ability, as he was able to deal with the Indians, who were 
constantly wandering through the Valley, without producing 
conflict or trouble. In 1751 Washington was called to Mount 
Vernon to the bedside of his brother Lawrence, with whom 
he remained for more than a year, caring for him in his illness. 
On the death of Lawrence, George Washington was left as, 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 375 

guardian for his little daughter, and was by the will made heir 
to the property, in the event of the death of this child. Shortly 
afterwards, on her death, Washington heired that splendid 
estate, Mount Vernon, which is to-day the Mecca of American 
patriots. At this time Washington was only twenty years old, 
but he was made a major in the Virginia militia, and a year 
later, by the House of Burgesses of Virginia, it was decided 
to make four military districts, and young Washington was 
put in command of the Northern Division of Virginia. At 
this time the French were pushing into the territory of the 
upper Ohio River, From the mouth of the Mississippi to the 
Great Lakes, the French were placing iron posts to mark their 
boundary and were really claiming all of the country west of 
the Alleghany Mountains. The Virginians claimed all of these 
western lands above the 34th degree of latitude, as far west as 
the Mississippi River. Moreover, as we have previously 
learned, the Ohio Company had been organized to form set- 
tlements in the regions around the headwaters of the Ohio 
River, and to this company had been granted five hundred 
thousand acres of land. With the approach of the French into 
this territory Governor Dinwiddie, who had come to Virginia 
in 1752, determined that an effort should be made to retain 
these lands for the Virginians. A commission was therefore 
determined upon, and for this perilous undertaking George 
Washington, just twenty -one years of age ? was selected. In a 
freezing spell of weather, in November, 1753, he began his 
mission, with a small party. He penetrated the woods, reach- 
ing an Indian village called Logstown, where he was directed 
to the French fort on Lake Erie, commanded by the Chevalier 
de St. Pierre, a French courtier and noble, and courteous man, 
but the chevalier, though very courteous, was, after all, a 
soldier, and he knew how to obey orders from his government. 
When Washington announced to him that his mission was to 



3/6 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

request the French to withdraw from the Ohio River and all 
that region, Chevalier de St. Pierre asked Colonel Washing- 
ton to convey to Governor Dinwiddie the following reply : "I 
am here by the orders of my general, and I entreat you, sir, 
not to doubt one moment but that I am determined to conform 
myself to them with all of the exactness and resolution that 
can be expected from the best officer." 

Thus the French refused to vacate the territory, and in 
the dead of winter Washington started back on a perilous 
journey. The rivers were full of ice and the canoes could not 
be used in many places in the streams. They had to be carried 
on the backs of the guides. Such horses as they had were worn 
out and stumbled in the road. At last Washington, in com- 
pany with only one person, Christopher Gist, an explorer in 
the territory west of the Allegheny, set out alone on foot, 
knapsacks on their shoulders. The ground was covered with 
snow and the journey was made at a great risk. Near where 
Pittsburg now stands an Indian guide tried to shoot him, and 
as he tried to cross the Allegheny River on a raft, he fell into 
the freezing water filled with ice, and with difficulty kept 
himself from drowning. He reached a small island on the 
river and spent the night in a half frozen condition. The 
next day he found a settlement, secured a horse, and in sixteen 
days was back in Williamsburg. He made his report to Gov- 
ernor Dinwiddie, and at once the Virginia House of Burgesses 
determined, if possible, to drive the French out of the north- 
ern territory. A regiment of Virginians was raised and placed 
under the command of Colonel Fry, with Washington as lieu- 
tenant-colonel. The troops were slow in assembling, so 
finally Washington set out from Alexandria with only two 
companies of troops without Colonel Fry in command. 

When he reached Great Meadows, near the Monongahela 
River, he had an encounter with the French, whose com- 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 377 

mander, Jumonville, was killed. Here Washington built a 
rude fortification, which was called Fort Necessity, and in 
this he placed his three hundred and fifty Virginians. The 
French and Indians made a vigorous attack and were repulsed, 
but when Washington perceived the numbers and realized 
that ammunition was failing, he decided to surrender the fort, 
with the provision that his troops, carrying their arms, might 
quietly return home. This was a bitter disappointment, but 
Washington did well to get away on these terms, and tlhe Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, recognizing this fact, passed a vote 
of thanks to Washington and his officers. 

The government of England was roused to the fact that 
if the French occupied the Ohio Valley, the English terri- 
tory in America would be greatly reduced in area, and at once 
they determined to disdain the action of Dinwiddie and make 
an effort to drive the French from the Ohio Valley. In ac- 
cordance with this purpose, they raised an army of about one 
thousand men, sent to Virginia under the command of Gen- 
eral Braddock. They at once consulted with Dinwiddie and 
proceeded to Alexandria, on the Potomac River 2 where his 
troops were quartered. Here a conference was held with the 
Governors of five colonies, Massachusetts, New York, Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland and Virginia. It was decided that these 
colonies should help in the efforts to drive the French out of 
America. The English, reinforced by Virginians and Mary- 
landers, were to march to the headwaters of the Ohio River, 
and capture the strong fort which had been built there by 
the French, known as Fort Duquesne ; after which they were 
to proceed against the forts of the French along the Great 
Lakes. The northern colonies were to make a fort on the 
French settlement, beginning at the mouth of the St. Law- 
rence, and pass up the river, and thus, according to General 
Braddock, all of the French possessions south of the St. Law- 



378 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

rence were, by the fall of 1755, to be in the hands of the Brit- 
ish. Alas for Braddock ! he did not understand the situation. 
Benjamin Franklin advised with Braddock, and he was unwill- 
ing to take the advice of an American who was not even a sol- 
dier. Franklin said, "To be sure, sir, if you arrive well before 
Duquesne, with these fine troops, the fort can probably make 
but a short resistance." Franklin put great stress on the "if." 
He emphasized afterwards the difficulty of passing through 
the Indian country. Braddock laughed at the whole thing, 
and said: 

"These savages may be indeed a formidable enemy to raw 
American militia, but upon the King's regular and disciplined 
troops, sir, it is impossible to make any impression." 

Braddock's movement on Fort Duquesne was very much 
like that of the march of triumph. Fie went first in his coach 
to Greenway Court, where he called on Lord Fairfax; then 
he passed through the western part of Maryland with bands 
playing and banners flying. He was disgusted with the roads 
and swore great oaths when he found out that he could not 
secure wagons in which to carry his provisions. Colonel 
Washington modestly informed him that it would be impos- 
sible to continue the march of a column with wagons through 
a wilderness, but General Braddock regarded this as pre- 
sumption on the part of a "Provincial" soldier. As the English 
were marching recklessly through the dense wilderness about 
eight miles from Fort Duquesne they were suddenly fired upon 
by the French and Indians, who were hid in the woods. 
Though they formed themselves in their accustomed ranks, 
crying, "God save the King! God save the King!" they were 
being killed in numbers when Washington asked Braddock to 
order his troops to take to the woods and fire from behind the 
trees in Indian fashion. It is reported that Braddock was 
very angry with Washington, replying: "What! a Virginia 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 379 

colonel teach a British general how to fight !" The loss of the 
Virginia and English troops was heavy, and when they broke 
it was Washington who gathered up the fugitives and brought 
from the field Braddock, who had received a mortal wound. 
Four days later Braddock was buried and Washington read 
the solemn words of the English burial service at the grave. 

Washington returned to Mount Vernon, worn out with 
his campaign. He wrote to his mother: "If it is in my power 
to avoid going to the Ohio again I shall, but if the command 
is pressed upon me by the general voice of the country and of- 
fered upon such terms as cannot be objected against, it would 
reflect dishonor upon me to refuse it." The very day on which 
he wrote this letter the Governor offered to him the com- 
mand of all the Virginia troops on his own terms. Washing- 
ton accepted and established his headquarters at Winchester. 

At this time Winchester was a frontier town, being the 
only one in the northern valley. There were then but two 
counties, Frederick and Augusta, west of the Blue Ridge 
Mountains. Virginia had fifty-two counties and forty-four 
towns, though more than half of the latter had not more than 
five houses. The population of the colony was about two 
hundred and ninety-three thousand, of whom one hundred 
and twenty thousand were negroes. 

At Winchester Washington was joined by Major Andrew 
Lewis, the great frontier Indian fighter of the Augusta region. 
Washington's defense of the frontier proved so effective that 
soon many settlers came into the Valley, and by 1759 Win- 
chester contained two hundred houses. You have learned in 
connection with Andrew Lewis that General Forbes under- 
took an expedition against Fort Duquesne. Washington com- 
manded the Virginia troops and joined General Forbes. It 
was against Washington's advice that Major Grant, with 
Major Andrew Lewis, was sent to reconnoitre the country 



380 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

about Fort Duquesne. When Forbes moved with the main 
army against the fort Washington requested to be put in the 
front, and Forbes, remembering Braddock's fate, complied with 
the request. With his sixteen hundred Virginians Washing- 
ton led the march to Fort Duquesne. In accordance with his 
advice, also, the army pushed rapidly forward. As a result, 
the French were surprised and disconcerted, and abandoned 
the place. Washington, with his Virginians, was the first to 
enter this fort, where he planted, with his own hand, the 
English flag (1758). The works were repaired and named 
Fort Pitt, in honor of the Prime Minister of England. The 
French were at last driven from the Ohio region. 

The people of Frederick elected Washington a member of 
the House of Burgesses, though he was not a resident of that 
county. On taking his seat Speaker Robinson thanked him in 
behalf of the colony for his service in the wars. Washington 
rose to express his acknowledgments for the honor, but was 
so disconcerted as to be unable to articulate a word distinctly. 
He blushed and faltered a moment, when the Speaker relieved 
him from his embarrassment by saying, "Sit down, Mr. Wash- 
ington ; your modesty equals your valor, and that surpasses 
the power of any language that I possess." 

Just before Washington marched with General Forbes to 
Fort Duquesne, he was on his way to Williamsburg to make a 
report to Governor Dinwiddie. When he was within a few 
hours' ride of the old capital he was hailed by Colonel Cham- 
berlayne, of New Kent county, who took him to dine at his 
home. As he was anxious to be in Williamsburg by the next 
morning, he ordered his servant, Bishop, to have his horse 
ready after dinner. Accordingly, when the noon meal was 
over, Bishop was seen at the front gate holding his master's 
horse, but Washington was so captivated by Mrs. Custis that 
'he forgot his urgent business, and left his servant to hold the 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 381 

horse all the afternoon. At last he rose to go, but his host 
told him that he was never willing for any of his guests to 
leave after sunset, and Washington was prevailed upon to 
spend the night. The next morning Bishop again appeared 
at the front gate with his master's horse, but it was late in the 
morning before the start was made to Williamsburg. On his 
return from Williamsburg Washington stopped to see Mrs. 
Custis at her home, and before he left she had promised to be 
his wife. 

Some months later they were married at Old St. Peter's 
Church, in New Kent county. We are told that the Governor 
came from Williamsburg in his coach and six, and many of his 
state officials were also present at the marriage. After the 
marriage the bride and her lady friends were borne to her 
home, the White House, on the Potomac River, in a carriage 
drawn by six horses, on which sat negro drivers dressed in 
uniform. The groom, accompanied by other gentlemen on 
horseback, rode beside the coach on his fine charger. 

Soon after his marriage Washington made his home at 
Mount Vernon, a fine estate, which he inherited from his 
brother. He enjoyed the free and easy life of a planter, and 
when not engaged in the services of his country, he took de- 
light in looking after his plantation. He rode over his farm 
each day to see if everything was being properly done by his 
many slaves and their overseers. He lived plainly. Some- 
times he would ride out in his carriage with his wife and step- 
children to visit a neighbor or to attend a ball. He was fre- 
quently a visitor at the home of George Mason, who wrote the 
famous Virginia Bill of Rights. At times he went fox-hunting 
with Lord Fairfax or some of the neighbors. During this 
period he served in the House of Burgesses. Like other poli- 
ticians of the day, when election time came on he appeared 
before the voters and did the usual treating. We are told 



382 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

that when he was first elected a member of the Burgesses, 
though only a few hundred votes were cast, he paid for his 
election with a hogshead and a barrel of punch, thirty-five 
gallons of wine, forty-three gallons of strong cider and 
dinner for his friends. The cost in money was £39, 6s. 
($200). Jefferson had done the same thing when he was first 
elected to the Burgesses. It has already been remarked that 
the people of Orange once failed to elect Madison a member 
of the Legislature because he would not spend money in treat- 
ing. Washington was a member of the House of Burgesses 
in 1765, when Patrick Henry took his seat and offered those 
famous resolutions against the stamp act. We do not know 
how Washington voted, but he probably voted with the Con- 
servatives against Henry's resolutions, though he was op- 
posed to the stamp act. 

Although England soon repealed the stamp act, she still 
insisted on the right to tax the colonies, and laid duties upon 
tea and some other articles which were imported by the 
colonists. Washington felt that this was an imposition, and 
he wrote to his friend Mason : "Something should be done to 
maintain the liberty which we have derived from our an- 
cestors. No man should hesitate a moment to use arms in 
defense of so valuable a blessing is clearly my opinion. Yet 
arms, I should beg leave to suggest, should be the last re- 
source." In 1769, on account of strong resolutions against 
the English government, the Governor dissolved the Bur- 
gesses. Thereafter most of them met in the Raleigh Tavern 
and adopted some resolutions, called the non-importation 
agreement, drawn by George Mason and presented by Wash- 
ington, agreeing that none of them would import from Eng- 
land tea or any other taxed goods. Washington lived up to 
this agreement, and would not allow any tea to be used in 
his own home. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 3^3 

Shortly after this, by act of English Parliament, the Bos- 
ton harbor was closed, and the first Continental Congress 
met in Philadelphia in 1774. Washington was chosen one 
of the Virginia representatives to that body, which asked 
England to repeal her harsh laws against the colonies. Con- 
gress adjourned to meet again in May, 1775. Before it as- 
sembled the first battle of the Revolution was fought on April 
19th at Concord and Lexington, in Massachusetts, and the 
colonies were in open rebellion against the mother country. 

When the second Continental Congress assembled on 
May 10, 1775, it began immediately to consider what the 
colonies ought to do, and after a month's time decided to put 
an army in the field. Against his wish, Washington was 
elected as commander-in-chief of the American forces. He 
proceeded at once to Boston, where he was received with 
shouts and the firing of cannon. On July 3, 1775, he took 
command of the Continental army. 

The story of the Revolutionary War belongs to the his- 
tory of the United States, and cannot be given here. Suf- 
ficient it is to say that from 1775 to 1781, a period of six 
years, Washington held the English army under check in 
New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. He lost several 
battles, but never suffered any crushing defeats. By two 
brilliant victories, one at Trenton and the other at Princeton, 
he saved the American cause. 

His soldiers suffered greatly in the terrible winters, and 
especially while they were stationed at Valley Forge, near 
Philadelphia, during the winter of 1777-1778. Though the 
army had scarcely any clothes, shoes or food, Washington 
did not despair. 

Many of the soldiers had to go barefooted, and they 
could be tracked through the snow by the blood from their 
naked feet. Many terrible things were said of Washington 



384 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

but he bore them all with a clear conscience and with an un- 
complaining spirit, relying upon Providence for final vindi- 
cation. A story is told that a good old Quaker heard Wash- 
ington praying in the woods, and went home and said to his 
wife: "George Washington will succeed. The Americans 
will secure their independence. I have heard him pray in 
the forest to-day, and the Lord will surely hear his prayer." 

A less brave man would have succumbed to the neglect of 
Congress, which had ample supplies, but did not furnish the 
means of sending them to the army. A plot was hatched even 
to remove Washington from the command, but it failed to 
carry, and Washington continued to persevere. Through 
the skill of a German officer, Baron Steuben, the soldiers were 
kept in constant drill, and when they were out of winter 
quarters in the spring, they were better disciplined than at 
any time before. 

After two years of waiting, the time came when the final 
blow should be given. Lord Cornwallis, with an English 
army, had stationed himself at Yorktown. A French fleet 
had entered the mouth of York River, and thus an English 
fleet was prevented from bringing aid. Washington saw the 
situation and marched rapidly from York to Yorktown, where 
he found Lafayette and the Virginia troops under Nelson. 
With Washington was a strong French force under Count 
Rochambeau. When the army was drawn up at Yorktown 
it numbered in all twelve thousand men. Gradually the lines 
of the Americans were moved closer and closer, and each day 
the English were subjected to a heavy fire. After a siege of 
three weeks Cornwallis decided to surrender, and on the 
19th of October, 1781, the English marched between the 
Americans and French, drawn up in separate lines, and laid 
down their arms, while the band played "The World Turned 
Upside Down." 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 385 

The war was now at an end, and in 1783 England acknowl- 
edged the independence of the thirteen States. During the 
long struggle Washington had been unselfishly patriotic. At 
one time the army was ready to declare him King, but Wash- 
ington sternly rejected such a proposition. 

In December, 1783, he bade farewell to the officers of the 
army in Fraunces's Tavern, New York. To those men who 
had followed him through the long and dark contest he said: 
"With a heart full of love and gratitude I now take my leave 
of you, most devoutly wishing that your latter days may be 
as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been 
glorious and honorable." In silence and with tears in his 
eyes he embraced each officer, after which he walked to 
Whitehall Ferry and began his journey homeward. He went 
to Annapolis, Md., where he resigned his commission to 
Congress, and on Christmas eve, 1783, reached Mt. Vernon, 
which he had left eight years before to become commander- 
in-chief of the Continental army. 

In 1787 a convention met in Philadelphia to draw up a 
Constitution for the United States. Washington was one of 
the Virginia delegates, and was made president of the con- 
vention. When the Constitution went into effect, in 1789, 
Washington was elected as the first President of the United 
States, having received every vote cast. It was with some 
regret that he left Mt. Vernon to go to New York, where 
Congress was then in session. His journey was made by 
carriage, and all along the road he was received with great 
delight by a loving people. On reaching New York he was 
conducted to Federal Hall, where, on the 30th of April, 1789, 
he was inaugurated President amid the shouts of "God bless 
our Washington ! Long live our beloved Washington !" 

It does not fall within the domain of this chapter to treat 
in detail of his official life as President of the United States. 



3§6 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

He entered upon the duties of his office absolutely without 
enthusiasm, and wpuld have greatly preferred remaining 
upon his estate at Mt. Vernon through the remainder of his 
years. The life at Mt. Vernon was utterly congenial to his 
tastes and aspirations, and it was only the sternest sense of 
duty that drew him from its retirement and occupations. He 
wrote in his diary concerning his departure: "About 10 
o'clock I bade adieu to Mt. Vernon, to private life and do- 
mestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more anxious 
and painful sensations than I have words to express, set 
out for New York." His career as President was eventful 
and exciting, filled with many trying and vexatious problems, 
provoking often the animosity of his nearest friends, c.alled 
into serious question by many of the wisest and best men of 
the times, grievously suspected and misunderstood at times 
by the people, yet through it all he brought his official life to a 
close, having preserved an untarnished integrity, and having 
exhibited in every perplexing question and in every great 
exigency a statesmanship of the highest order. 

After eight years of official life, he took up his residence 
again at Mt. Vernon, giving wise and diligent care to his 
property and fortunes that had suffered no little by his pro- 
tracted absence from home. Concerning his manner of liv- 
ing, he answered the inquiry of a friend in the following way: 
"I begin my diurnal course with the sun, that if my hirelings 
are not in their places by that time I send them messages of 
sorrow for their indisposition. Having put these wheels in 
motion, I examine the state of things further; the more they 
are probed to the deeps I find the wounds which my build- 
ings have sustained by an absence of eight years; by the time 
I have accomplished these matters breakfast (a little after 
7 o'clock, about the time, I presume, you are taking leave of 
Mrs. McHenry) is ready; this being over, I mount my horse 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 387 

and ride round my farms, which employs me until time to 
dress for dinner, at which time I rarely miss seeing strange 
faces. The usual sitting at the table, a walk and tea bring 
me within the dawn of the candle light, previous to which, 
if not prevented by company, I resolve, as soon as a glim- 
mering taper supplies the place of the great luminary, I will 
repair to my writing table and acknowledge the letters I have 
received. When the lights are brought I feel tired and in- 
disposed to engage in this work, concluding that the next 
night might do as well. The next night comes with the 
same cause for postponement, and so on. Having given you 
the history of a day, it will answer for a year." Thus pur- 
sued he the even tenor of his way, in quiet and dignified and 
well earned seclusion, responding now and then to such calls 
of duty as his countrymen might impose, not refusing even 
to serve as a juryman in his native county when called upon. 

On the 12th of December, 1799, while riding over his 
farm, he was chilled by the keen winds and by the cold rain 
and sleet that was falling. When he retired that night he 
was hoarse and cold, and in the night he awoke with a sharp 
pain in his throat. In the morning a doctor was summoned, 
and the usual treatment of bleeding and other remedies were 
applied, but nothing would relieve the trouble, and he died 
on December 14, 1799. His body lies entombed upon Vir- 
ginia soil in a simple, but imposing tomb at Mount Vernon. 
In 1857 the State of Virginia erected to his memory a splendid 
equestrian statue, which adorns the Capitol Square at Rich- 
mond. 

It must be forever the unchallenged pride of the old Com- 
monwealth that she gave to the world the peerless com- 
mander who was "first in war, first in peace, first in the 
hearts of his countrymen." Devoted to his own native State, 
he fondly loved all the sisterhood of States, and loved the 



388 COLONIAL VIRGINIA. 

union of all the States better than his own life. He was 
the type not of the Cavalier, nor of the Virginian, but of 
the unprovincial American, embodying in his imperial char- 
acter the best that was in both Cavalier and Puritan, in 
warm Southerner and stern New Englander. Right truly 
of him, therefore, wrote James Barron Hope in his centen- 
nial ode at Yorktown in October, 1881 : 

"He knew not North, nor South, nor West, nor East: 
Childless himself, Father of States he stood, 
Strong and sagacious as a Knight turned Priest, 
And avowed to deeds of good. 

"So his vast image shadows all the lands, 
So holds forever Man's adoring eye, 
And o'er the Union which it left it stands, 
Our Cross against the sky!" 



LR6D?9 



